#i could see them being like. well .she wasn't born in the pole so she's not magical so her hug was a fluke and jack never thawed or some

[safyresky]

saw scenes from the series AGAIN, am re-infuriated AGAIN, fandom wank under the CUT

grrr i am BITING at the BARS of my CAGE I HATE how PREFORMATIVE everything WAS I DISLIKE that it is in LIMBO I live in FEAR every DAY that a season 3 will be announced and they will IMMEDIATELY EVISCERATE THE CHARACTERS THEY HAVE YET TO TOUCH (i am talking about the millers, specifically lucy, and jack) I HOPE WE NEVER EVER EVER SEE THEM IN THE SERIES I HOPE THE SERIES NEVER COMES BACK GRR GRRR GRRR

[gryficowa]

I'm still surprised that saying Jesus was killed by Jews is controversial, especially when Jesus was Jewish…

Many of the apostles were also Jews, so the moment when one of the apostles says that Jews are bastards is like me saying that I hate Poles, being a Kashubian, which means also a Pole (This line of thinking)

Although I do not support using this as an argument to harass people, jeez, many Jews were not alive then, so stooping to the level that Zionists sink to when attacking people from e.g. Poland or Germany who support Palestine, is just pathetic, if you use it to harass someone you are a loser

Jesus could not have been a Muslim, because, as we know, Islam did not exist then, but he was rather an Arab, and Arab Jews exist (Unfortunately, Israel has persecuted Arab Jews on its conscience), so yes, Jesus was a Jew then, because Christianity did not exist then ( I guess that in the case of the Prophet Muhammad there is also such a case, because as I mentioned, religions are based on books based on people who lived then, or based on things they have heard for generations, unfortunately, the latter may be slightly distorted, However, I will not say whether he was raised in a Jewish or Christian family, because Jesus was raised in a Jewish family, so you know what I mean in all this, and he was surrounded by Jews, so it's all about context, so it still surprises me, that it was used to harass people, WTF are you praying to a Jew, and then you attack the Jews, what's the point? Ok, Jesus was whitewashed in the pictures, but still, he was a Jew, I don't understand all this because it's absurd)

So yes, we should see the information that Jews killed Jesus as a fact, but without forgetting that Jesus and the apostles were Jews, so yes, let's not use it to harass people, because then it will turn out that Mary (His mother) also killed Jesus because she was Jewish, so bruh

Because this line of thinking reminds Jews who believe that Poles worked with the Nazis, what about Poles who were murdered? What about Polish Jews? According to the law they were also Poles, so according to this logic they were also responsible for killing Jews… Yes, this line of thinking doesn't work when you start thinking in a broader context and that's the point, a lot of people ignore the fact that Jesus himself was Jewish, which is just… Well, needless to say, fucked up on so many levels

So yes, we shouldn't erase the fact that Jesus was killed by Jews, but even less should we pretend that Jesus wasn't a Jew because that contradicts the family he was raised in (Seriously, it amuses me for some reason that every time is a religious production, Jesus is so white that you start to wonder shouldn't there be an order to look for white babies to kill them, then there would be fewer babies killed during this, seriously, if Jesus was white, then this order would reduce the killing of all babies born on a certain night)

But okay, I'm starting to wonder about the absurdity of film adaptations of the Bible, because seriously, no matter what you believe in (Either you're an agnostic or an atheist), you can outright admit that white Jesus is absurd on many levels, because WTF, why is he white?

Jesus probably did not have albinism (Or rather, he was not described as a person with albinism), so his being white makes no sense (Anyway, if he were an albinist, in those areas he would have blond or white hair and blue eyes, or rather, as we see his hair in a bleached image, the hair color is dark, as are the eyes)

Okay, my brain started to boil, and the post wasn't supposed to be about how fucked up it is that Jesus is shown as a white man, because there are images where Jesus has dark skin (So does Mary), but unfortunately, many images usually depict them as white people, so well…

But back, Jesus was a Jew, so it doesn't make sense that people used his crucifixion to persecute people…

[babygirl097]

Sai

Raphael x reader

Shredders first attack on New York. No one knew who took him down, but what happens when a local photographer was able to snap a picture before the true hero's were able to make it into the sewer.

Part 2 of 4

ALL PARTS ON MY PAGE

*2 years ago, turtles pov*

Jumping down the man hole cover, cheering and laughing as they made it to the layer.

Heading to Splinter, fixing him up. They leave him to rest heading out into the main room.

"So, are we going to talk about the chick with the camera?" Mikey asked

Leo sighed, "maybe she didn't catch anything? I mean we were moving pretty fast"

"Yeah baby, cuz I'm as fast as lightning" Mikey said

"I can scan the area and look at Intel to see if I can find anything?" Donnie asked

"Or maybe we go look for the chick and make her delete it" Raph said.

"We really don't need another girl fainting especially after what just happened" Leo replied

"Plus maybe she didn't even really take the picture" Mikey said shoving pizza into his mouth.

"Did you not see the flash numb nutts?" Raph growled with a shove and a whine from Mikey

"It will be fine" Leo replied

*2 years later, readers pov*

Taking night strolls wasn't safe but being that Casey was out after basically putting me on house arrest it would have to do.

Hardly being able to leave the apartment when he was home. So sneaking out it was.

Mindlessly walking down alleyways was borning but being cooped up wasn't fun either. Passing an ally something caught my eye.

Taking a look, something stuck out from a pole. Walking closer to inspect it was a sai. I researched a lot about these after taking that picture. The red one had two of these.

Prying it out of the pole I tuck it into my jacked and rush back home.

Slamming the door shut I run to my laptop laying the sai on the table in the living room, pulling up the picture and zooming in.

The sai had the same red cloth on it like the ones in the picture. Zooming in more. Could it be?

The front door slammed open, "hey-" Casey paused his face paled

"Where did you get that?" He asked

"Found it" I replied

"Give it to me" he said walking over to grab it

Snatching it before he could, "what? No I found it, its mine finders keepers"

"Y/N I'm serious, you don't know who it belongs to" he growled

"Oh, and you do?" I asked

"Yes!" He shouted "Wait, wait no i- I don't"

"Don't you dare lie to me Casey Jones" I seethed

"Fine, fine. You might want to sit down" he sighed

Setting the sai away from him I sat, "the picture you took, i- I met them tonight" he said

"If your trying to poke fun at me again this isn't funny Casey" I said going to stand

" I'm not! The blue one is Leonardo, the orange one is Michelangelo. The purple one is Donatello and the red one is Raphael. It belongs to Raphael. He's a dick by the way. They are working to stop shredder and the foot. We believe he will attack again we just don't know how or when yet " Casey replied

"I-" not knowing where to start

"I'm being serious here" Casey said

"I believe you. I-I want to meet them" I said

"What? No are you crazy? Their huge mutant turtles who are a bunch of jerks no" he said

"Your not the boss of me, house arrest is one thing but I've invested 2 years of my life on this one picture of them and don't forget you didn't believe me. So set up a time and place. I want to return this to him myself" I said holding the weapon up

He groaned, "I'll see what I can do"

"So, shredder what do you know about that?" I asked

"Well i know he's after some more of that mutant liquid from the last time he attacked but, this time his plan it seems more sinister" he said

"Oh, well I'm sure if they stopped him last time they can stop him again" I smiled

"You have a lot of confidence for things you don't even know" he laughed

"I know"

Smiling triumphantly I picked up the sai heading to my room, "Hey wait" Casey said stopping me

"Hm?" I mumbled

"I'm sorry for not believing you" he apologized

I smiled, "its okay, sorry for not believing your garbage truck story" I said turning around

"You said you believed me!" He yelled

I laughed, shutting my door.

*next day*

Casey sent out the message about me wanting to meet.

I'm not crazy! I knew they were real, I knew that I saw them and I wasn't going crazy.

Rethinking them and their names and old memory came back, frowning.

I head to my room and rummage through my closet, opening old unpacked boxes from my childhood.

Finding what I was looking for, pulling out an old diary my phone rang, startling me.

Not looking I answer, "hello?"

"Is this Y/N?" An unknown voice asked, looking at my phone realising it was a restricted number.

"Um yes, who is this?" I asked back

"Leonardo, you may have heard of me" he replied

With a gasp I stop what I was doing, "i-um yes, yes I do"

"Alright, good. You see my brother Raph wants his belongings back and he's not very patient. Tonight where you found it, at 11 and come by yourself." he said

"I- yes okay" I stutter

"Oh, and Y/N?" He stared

"Yes" I whisper

"Bring your camera" the line went dead

Storming out of my room, startling Casey making him spill his beer

"Hey! What's your problem" he asked

"You told them about the picture?!" I yelled

"What? Of course not!" He yelled back

"Then how do they know? Leonardo just called! He knows!" I yelled

"I don't know! The brother Donatello is good with computers and shit maybe he found out!" He said

Groaning "ugh, fine"

I head back to my room.

I'm screwed.

*time skip*

Tossing and turning was all i could do last night, sighing I turn over and look at my alarm, 2:30pm?!

I shoot out of bed, nerves and excitement making an uncomfortable mix in my stomach.

What if they were upset? How did they even know I had the picture from 2 YEARS AGO?!

Wait, what if they knew this whole time? Why wouldn't they have done anything? Its been a long time, wouldn't they have found me sooner in hopes not to blow their cover?

Sighing I head to the bathroom to shower, mind racing.

Once I'm finished and change and head to get some food in my system, just as I reach the kitchen I see Casey pass.

"Where are you headed?" I asked

"I have a lead on the two criminals, something big is going to happen I know it" he said

"Oh, okay. Well be safe and remember I cant afford rent myself" I mumbled nerves still running

"Yeah, yeah" he said while he walked out the door.

Doing every little thing I can to try and make the day go by faster, I go back to my room and go for that old diary again.

I think the clock on the wall is mocking me, an annoying tick as the minuets pass.

Their names are familiar, an old memory I had.

Opening the book and flipping a few pages, I find what I'm looking for.

When I was a young girl I was sent here to live with my uncle and aunt after my parents passed, I remember making a friend with this one girl named April.

She would take me to her dad's lab to meet her pets, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello.

There was a rat too, splinter.

What coincidence is this? They were experiments as far as I knew but they died didn't they?

April and I were close, separating after highschool due to different career paths.

As college became more and more time consuming, our communications slowly drifted away.

Grabbing my phone, I open my contacts to see if I still have her number.

My fingers hovering above her name. What if she's busy or doesn't remember me?

Sighing I turn my phone off and throw it one the bed.

The rest of the day goes by as a blur and soon enough its 10:30.

I finish getting ready, strap my camera around my neck pick up the bag with the sai in it and head out the door.

Finding the alley seemed to be a bit of a challenge but eventually I found it.

Looking around a bit, the suddenly being grabbed and blindfolded.

[seoll3miwrites]

When Snow Fall | The Hunger Games F.O

Chapter 1. Opening Ball

Back to Masterlist

In which Valeria wears a pretty dress and dances with a pretty boy

It was the beginning of the 74th Hunger Games, which also meant that today was the annual opening ball held before the Reapings occur. The highest in Capitol society attended, as did many previous victors. It was also one of the few events that Valeria could not avoid.

As she walked through the ballroom doors she immediately felt out of depth. She didn't normally attend these events, as a result she had no idea what to do at them. She wasn't interested in the gossip of the Capitol, and she had nothing in common with any in attendance.

For quite some time she stood to the side of the grand room, close to the corner. She observed those around her and noticed that despite their extreme dresses and makeup; none of them actually stood out. They all just blended together as a kaleidoscope of fabrics and powder.

As Valeria stood there she remembered the words her mother had spoken to her during her dress fitting.

"Honestly my darling, I know you don't want to go but unfortunately you were born into a great family. So we need to act like it, or else they'll all forget about you"

Except that's exactly what Valeria wanted, she hated the attention she got just from her name being read out in every class she ever took. She particularly hated the attention from the men who wanted the fame that came from marrying into the Snow family. It was why she avoided these events like the plague, those type of people practically filled the entire room.

She glanced over to the table that housed the past victors, likely forced to attend just like her. Not that she'd approach them, the last time she attempted to speak with them they'd shunned her away. Her surname likely drew them away, although she wouldn't be surprised if her grandfather had warned them to stay away.

"What's a girl dressed like that doing without a line of men?" She turned to see Cinna, he'd designed the dress she was wearing, it was his trial for becoming a game stylist this year.

He'd done a phenomenal job. She was dressed in an elegant peach ball gown with a sweetheart neckline and draping sleeves, but the most unique feature was the waterfall of pink and white roses that cascaded down from the bodice to the skirt.

"Cinna oh I so glad to see you!" She embraced him careful not to cause any damage to the dress. "I'm sorry I'm just not great at these things"

"Oh don't worry darling, I know this isn't your kind of scene"

"You're right about that, god how do people do this?"

Cinna simply laughed in response before whispering, "I guess some people are better at pretending then other are"

"You could say that again"

"If you ever want to escape I'll cover for you, just don't tear the dress" he whispered before winking and walking away.

Valeria smiled to herself as she watched Cinna stroll away to speak to other group of stylists that had gathered to inspect each attendees dresses. She let out a sigh as her eyes continued to wander from the stylists around the room inspecting each group to find a fit somewhere. Her friends didn't go to these events and her Grandfather had told her that she couldn't just rely on those she already knew, he wanted her make connections.

She took a breath before walking further into the ballroom and moving towards a small group of women their bodies covered in bright fabrics, several even covered their faces in various equally vibrant masks. One of the women noticed her moving towards them and whispered to the others before standing straighter than a flag pole and turning towards Valeria.

"Oh my dear, it's so lovely you could join us tonight"

She spoke like she knew Valeria personally yet they'd never so much as glanced at each other before. Nevertheless, she replied as politely as she could, "Oh well thank you, whoever planned this has done a wonderful job. It’s beautiful."

"Rightfully said. It was a close friend of mine, Alicia Crane you may have heard of her, her brother’s the head game maker again this year. Can you believe it?"

"It's definitely incredible for them. I'm sure the whole Crane family is proud of him"

"Ah yes he's the pride of the family now" The one to the side with neon green hair added. "Heard he's got some positively nefarious tricks for this years games"

At this the others began to laugh in excitement to the upcoming bloodbath, and Valeria simply smiled awkwardly wanting to save face without laughing at the death of 23 children. Her mother had reminded her that lecturing people on the morality of the hunger games would not look good for the Snow family's image; at least not in public.

"Oh my dear you must tell, are the rumours true? You're District Four’s newest escort?"

"um... yes its true" She replied, "I'm very excited I've never had the chance to visit Four before"

"Well, what a honour to have the Capitol princess visit my home" A voice from behind her called, causing her to turn around. There was Finnick, the 'Capitol Darling' in all his glory. His stylist had surprisingly dressed him this time, instead of something outrageously revealing he wore a suit similar to that of other capital attendees. It was a dark blue with intricate silver embroidery of waves crashing against a rock side, and the buttons were in the shape of silver seashells.

"Hello Finnick, it's a pleasure to meet you I'm-"

"Valeria Snow" He interrupted, "Believe me, I'm aware of who you are"

"Oh of course you are" She muttered, looking slightly down in mild embarrassment.

"Although, I must say didn't picture you to be this pretty" He continued with his signature smirk across his face.

Valeria knew he simply being polite and his usual flirtatious self, but she still uttered a simple "Thank you" and smiled brightly. She was happy someone thought she looked good, especially since it was Cinna that had styled her.

"I suppose it would be wrong to compliment a lady and not ask her to dance"

"I'm sorry?" She raised her head to look at him in surprise to find his hand outstretched towards her.

"Dance? You do know how to dance right?"

"Yes, of course I know how to dance"

"Good" He said before grabbing her hand and leading her to the centre of the room, "At least you won't completely embarrass me, I have a reputation to uphold."

Finnick placed his hand on the small of her back, pulling her closer to him. In turn, Valeria moved her hand upwards towards his shoulder. They began a slow and gentle waltz to music softly playing, they glided across the floor and between the other couples. Valeria found it difficult to look anywhere but at Finnick, they were close enough to feel the breath of the other on their skin.

"Are really excited to see four?" Finnick said, after three minutes of them dancing in silence.

"Well I've never seen the sea, or even a beach, at least not a real one"

Finnick laughed before speaking, "So you became my district's escort because you wanted to see the beach?"

"No!" Valeria exclaimed, "I just... actually can you keep a secret?"

"Princess, that's exactly what I deal in"

"Really?" She leaned back slightly to look up at him more clearly, "Seems like a bad business model"

"You'd be surprised at how much secrets are worth."

"Capitol has lots of those"

"Huh" Finnick laughed.

"What?"

"Just never met anyone from the capitol that's not a complete idiot"

They shared a knowing smile, as they continued to softly sway.

"Guess you've never spoken to right people.”

"Guess not" He winked before continuing, "You've yet to tell me this big secret of yours"

"Oh right, I became an escort becau-" Valeria was able to continue as she was suddenly pulled away from Finnick, only to be faced with a clearly angry Johanna.

"Just what the fuck do you think you are doing?" She refused to release Valeria's wrist holding her in place.

"I'm sorry, we were just dancing..." She was confused, why was such an issue to dance with Finnick. She'd seen him dance many times before at other events with several women.

"Don't play dumb with me, you know exactly what I'm talking about"

"Johanna wait-" Finnick began to step in try to pull her away.

"No Finnick, I refuse to let someone like her get their hands on you" She was continuously glaring at the girl opposite her.

While Johanna and Finnick continued their exchange, Valeria looked around and realised that all eyes were on her. The women she had spoken to just minutes before were smirking at her embarrassment and had begun to whisper to each other. Another glance and she found the other victors looking at her with the same hatred she saw in Johanna's eyes. She continued to look around as her breath slowly left her, as the sound began to fade out until there was only a dull buzzing.

This feeling was building and building, and it was only when she felt the tears begin to well that she suddenly moved into action. With a strength completely unknown to her, Valeria wrenched her hand from the victor's grasp and sprinted out the ballroom's door.

Next Chapter

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 28 of Gideon the Ninth

I am disappointed by Mayonnaise Uncle's revelation. The most interesting new piece of information is that the shuttle exploded, but he doesn't have anything actually verifiable about what happened to all the children, he just has ideas about ominous possibilities, which really, I think we already had. But thank you Gideon, for finally sharing what you at least thought happened to all the children, 275 pages after we learned they all died. There still seems to be as yet unshared information about why no other children have been born since Harrow, though, how many more pages are we going to have to wait for that? There are barely more than 100 left in the book

My guess is that Harrow blew the shuttle up specifically so that they couldn't take this news to other Houses, and this wasn't like, a plot to kill Gideon or something like that. But if she just didn't want that news leaving Pluto, she could have just let Ortus and Glaurica stay on the Ninth, there wasn't really any reason to kill them. She could have gotten rid of the shuttle to foil Gideon's escape some other way, I'm sure

I am sort of curious about how the Eighth got ahold of Glauria's body or ghost to necromance this information out of her if she exploded in space

Colum is a better and more independent person than I expected. Good for him.

I note that Mayonnaise Uncle originally promised Gideon that he was going to help her "become more than the lock on your own collar" and then really did no such thing, and had nothing to offer other than "the Ninth House probably killed 200 children but I don't actually have proof". Even if that was provably true, he didn't give Gideon any actual way to separate herself from the Ninth House. I'm honestly not sure what he expected out of this, unless it was just specifically a trap to try to take her key, and based on the fact that Colum at least wasn't aware that he was going to try to do that, I'm really not sure what the point of this meeting was supposed to be

Mayonnaise Uncle seems to think that becoming a Lyctor is itself heretical, which is odd, considering that he seems very religious and we have in this book a bunch of priests who seem very keen on one or more of the candidates becoming Lyctors. I'm guessing that the religion as practiced on the Eighth might be more different from the standard religion than Mayonnaise Uncle believes

What I'm getting from the argument between Mayonnaise Uncle and Colum is that on the Eighth they are doing some weird eugenics program to breed perfectly compatible necromancer/cavalier pairs to optimize the soul siphoning process, which probably explains why Colum is like way older than Mayonnaise Uncle despite being his nephew

I hope Colum doesn't wind up being the person to kill Gideon, because that would be Unsatisfying, and also I'd like to see Colum kick Mayonnaise Uncle to the curb now

Belated note from Chapter 27:

This seems to check out pretty well if the Sixth is Mercury, there are actually spots on Mercury in various craters near the poles that never see daylight, also, apparently Mercury has a day/night cycle that is longer than its year, which must do interesting things to whole idea of seasons, but I don't feel like mathing it all out right now. And Mercury actually has huge variations in temperature, due to not having any atmosphere to retain any heat

I can't decide where on the sliding scale of sci-fi hardness the actual sci-fi in this book falls, because it is definitely harder than the kind of sci-fi where they're like, yeah, we just terraformed all the planets and they're all just like Earth now modulo a bunch of sci-fi generators that modify the atmosphere and temperature and so forth, but at the same time it's softer than the ones that say, we can't actually go faster than the speed of light, so it takes literal generations to get anywhere and we all have to go into cryosleep for hundreds of years. And I feel like introducing somewhat magical terraforming is generally more acceptable at harder levels of sci-fi than introducing FTL travel, if that makes sense

[twoidiotwriters1]

Daughter of Olympus (Leo Valdez xFem!Oc)

A/N: I need to sleep better so bad but I can't fix it I need to slam my head against a wall -Danny Words: 2,979 Series' Masterlist Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

XXII: They Had Us in The First Half, Not Gonna Lie

They walk into the courtyard where there are two massive figures inside an empty reflecting pool. Inside one of the spires, Ara sees Porphyrion, and in the other, they see Hera.

Leo's the first to jump. "Hola, Tía. Little bit of trouble?"

"Don't inspect me like I'm one of your machines, Leo Valdez. Get me out of here!"

Ara's the second to jump in. "Lady Hera, I'm honored. Where's my brother?"

The goddess studies her bandages. "What's the matter, child, you can't hold a third of our fronts without help?"

"We tried everything we could think of, guys," Thalia joins them. "But maybe my heart wasn't in it. If it was up to me, I'd just leave her in there."

"Ohh, Thalia Grace! When I get out of here, you'll be sorry you were ever born."

"Save it! You've been nothing but a curse to every child of Zeus for ages. You sent a bunch of intestinally challenged cows after my friend Annabeth—"

"She was disrespectful!"

"You dropped a statue on my legs."

"It was an accident!"

"And you took my brother! Here—on this spot. You ruined our lives. We should leave you to Gaea!"

"What if you set the cage on fire, Leo? That ought to work way one or another," Ara suggests since the poles that assemble the goddess's cage are made of branches.

"Hey," Jason moves closer. "Girls, this isn't the time to yell at Hera. Thalia, you should help your Hunters."

"Fine," she throws one last murderous glare at Hera before standing. "For you, Jason. But if you ask me, she isn't worth it."

When she goes away, Leo looks between Ara and Hera with a raised eyebrow. "Intestinally challenged cows?"

"Focus on the cage, Leo," Hera scowls. "And Jason—you are wiser than your sister. I chose my champion well."

"I'm not your champion, lady. I'm only helping you because you stole my memories and you're better than the alternative. Speaking of which, what's going on with that?"

"That, Jason," Hera says grimly, "is the king of the giants being reborn."

"Gross," Piper mutters.

"Indeed. Porphyrion, the strongest of his kind. Gaea needed a great deal of power to raise him again—my power. For weeks I've grown weaker as my essence was used to grow him a new form."

"So you're like a heat lamp," Leo muses. "Or fertilizer."

"Joke all you wish," Hera hisses. "But at sundown, it will be too late. The giant will awake. He will offer me a choice: marry him, or be consumed by the earth. And I cannot marry him. We will all be destroyed. And as we die, Gaea will awaken."

"Fun!" Ara leans closer. "So is there any way you can help me heal faster?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" Hera huffs.

"And can't we blow it up or something?" Leo points at the giant over his shoulder.

"Without me, you do not have the power," Hera responds. "You might as well try to destroy a mountain."

"Done that once today," Jason shrugs.

"Show off," Ara takes off her cloak and unwraps her bandages.

"Just hurry up and let me out!"

Jason sighs. "Leo, can you do it?"

"I don't know. Besides, if she's a goddess, why hasn't she busted herself out?"

Hera might not be strong enough to release herself but she's got enough energy to scold them. "Use your brain, Leo Valdez. I picked you because you're intelligent. Once trapped, a god's power is useless. Your own father trapped me once in a golden chair. It was humiliating! I had to beg—beg him for my freedom and apologize for throwing him off Olympus."

"Sounds fair."

"I've watched you since you were a child, son of Hephaestus, because I knew you could aid me at this moment. If anyone can find a way to destroy this abomination, it is you."

"But it's not a machine! It's like Gaea thrust her hand out of the ground and... Hold on. I do have an idea. Piper, I'm going to need your help. And we're going to need time."

"Leave that to me," Ara winks at him and releases her arm, then gets closer to the cage. "Alright, Lady, can you please reboot my arm to its factory settings?"

Hera barely manages to step half an inch closer when the enemy storms into the room. Venti horses, Lycan's wolves, and the Earthborn are all ready to rip them apart limb by limb. A wolf drops a frozen girl at the edge of the pool.

"Thalia!" Jason gasps.

As soon as the statue touches the ground, everything around it freezes as well, so Leo and Piper have to hold Jason back. "Who did this?" He asks in outrage. "I'll kill you myself!"

A girl laughs at the very back of the group. "Bon soir, mes amis. Alas, son of Hephaestus, you say you need time? I'm afraid time is one tool you do not have." 

"Oh great, it's the nepobaby..." Ara mutters.

"What've you done?" Jason demands.

"Oh, so many things! Your sister's not dead, if that's what you mean. She and her Hunters will make fine toys for our wolves. I thought we'd defrost them one at a time and hunt them down for amusement. Let them be the prey for once." The creatures growl. 

"Yes, my dears... Your sister almost killed their king, you know. Lycaon's off in a cave somewhere, no doubt licking his wounds, but his minions have joined us to take revenge for their master. And soon Porphyrion will arise, and we shall rule the world."

"Traitor!" Hera hisses. "You meddlesome, D-list goddess! You aren't worthy to pour my wine, much less rule the world."

"Tiresome as ever, Queen Hera. I've been wanting to shut you up for millennia," With a flick of Khione's wrist, the cage gets covered in ice.

"No!" Ara pokes the ice trying to break through, but it's too thick.

"That's better. Now, demigods, about your death—"

"You're the one who tricked Hera into coming here," Jason interrupts her. "You gave Zeus the idea of closing Olympus."

Ara tries to break through the frost, but the spaces between the branches are thin and the ice is pure white, which means is dense. "Leo, give me a hammer," she urges him.

He rummages inside his tool belt and hands her a chisel. "That'll work better."

Piper and Leo close in front of her so Khione can't see what she's doing, it's the one time Ara's thankful to be short. As she works, the girl listens to the conversation happening in front of her.

"...The ancient places, that's what Enceladus meant about destroy the roots of the gods. He meant Greece."

As if that's not the craziest statement she's heard this week, Khione adds one of her own. 

"You could join me, son of Hephaestus. I know you find me beautiful. It would be enough for my plan if these other three were to die. Reject that ridiculous destiny the Fates have given you. Live and be my champion, instead. Your skills would be quite useful."

Leo bursts out laughing. "Yeah, join you... Right. Until you get bored of me and turn me into a Leosicle? Lady, nobody messes with my dragon and gets away with it. I can't believe I thought you were hot."

"Hot?" The young goddess asks shakily. "You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez. Very, very cold."

She tries to attack but Leo's a second ahead. He creates a wall of fire between them. "See, lady, that's what happens to snow in Texas. It—freaking—melts."

Ara strikes the ice as hard as she can and creates a gap. Hera peers through it. "Get closer, child!"

The girl presses her back against the cage, ripping the remains of her sleeve so Hera can touch her skin. A sharp pain spreads across her back and down her left arm. "It's healing!" She whispers in a strangled voice. "This sucks!"

"Stay still!" Hera orders.

"Enough of this!" Khione's annoyed, but not scared. "Hera is failing. Porphyrion is rising. Kill the demigods. Let them be our king's first meal!"

Ara's arm doesn't stop hurting, but now it's tolerable, like a pulled muscle. The Lichtenberg formations remain on her skin, Hera's not strong enough to heal her fully. "Thanks!" 

The girl picks up her cloak and puts it on, draws her sword out, and charges into battle. Even if it wasn't all of her power, Hera's healing restores Artemis' blessing and Ara in a way no amount of nectar and ambrosia could've achieved.

Jason has tamed a venti horse and is riding through the crowd of monsters. Piper's battling the Earthborn, but they don't put much of a fight, too distracted by how pretty she looks while killing them. Leo's fighting Khione, but if anyone can hold their own against her, that's him. 

Ara charges against the nearly impossible-to-kill wolves. "Hey, Ken!" She calls after Jason. "Hand me a few of those arrows your venti has in its mane!"

Jason picks out three and passes them to her. "But you don't have a—"

"I do!" Ara replies. She's starting to understand the way her compass works.

While Jason beats the wolves with a piece of wood, Ara presses on the alpha of her sword twice. She's now holding a bronze and gold bow, and she uses it to the best of her abilities, more arrows fall from the vanishing venti and she picks them on the go.

Jason and her are a whirlwind of purple and orange, and in no time, their enemies are all slaughtered with the exception of Khione. Ara grabs two arrows and points them at the goddess, normally, she would consider herself lucky to know which end is the pointy one, but Artemis is really coming through with the blessing.

"You're too late," the goddess snarls. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us."

Leo throws flaming hammers at the goddess at the same time Ara shoots, Khione turns to snow before their eyes and Leo clicks his tongue like she's an annoying fly he missed. "Is that Almighty?" He points at her bow.

Ara turns back into a sword. "Had this thing for a whole year, and I just discovered it can do that. Can you believe it?"

Piper approaches Jason and smiles. "Nice horse." The creature stands on its hind legs. Ara steps away from it, not wanting to get hit by lightning a second time.

"Oh, don't mind me!" Hera shatters the ice around her cage. "Just the queen of the heavens, dying over here!"

Ara's no longer glowing, but she's still in good shape, so she smiles. "We're on it, Lady, don't get cranky."

"Uh, Tía Callida, are you getting shorter?" Leo jumps back to the pool and examines the inside of the cage.

"No, you dolt! The earth is claiming me. Hurry! The giant wakes!" Hera urges them. "You only have seconds!"

"On it. Piper, I need your help. Talk to the cage."

"What?"

"Talk to it. Use everything you've got. Convince Gaea to sleep. Lull her into a daze. Just slow her down, try to get the tendrils to loosen while I—" 

"Right! Hey, Gaea. Nice night, huh? Boy, I'm tired. How about you? Ready for some sleep?"

While they get to work, Ara approaches the giant and crouches, poking his shoulder with the tip of her sword. 

"Don't taunt him!" Hera scolds her.

"I was just checking—!" Porphyrion busts out of his enclosure, crawling out at an alarming speed. Ara chokes out the rest of her words. "H-He's awake..."

"Get away from him!" Jason shouts.

Ara stumbles back with her sword up, but she doesn't know where to point, he's covered in armor. 

"Alive! Praise to Gaea!" His eyes are milky white, but Ara's certain he can see everything.

"You'll be dead soon, thank the gods!" Ara taunts him.

The giant looks at her. "Bold! And who are you?"

Ara opens her mouth to claim "I'm the daughter of Olympus!", but the only thing that comes out is: "Uhhh..."

"Giant!" Jason stands next to her.

"Excellent, there are two of you!" Porphyrion exclaims. "What an appetizer! Who are you—Hermes? Ares?"

"I'm Jason Grace," the boy announces. "Son of Jupiter. This is Ara Jackson, the child of Olympus."

Porphyrion cackles. "Outstanding!" He looks up. "So, Zeus, you sacrifice your son and an infant godling to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."

Ara and Jason share a look, there's only so much they can do, and the more anxious she gets, the more her left shoulder pulses, reminding her she is not as invincible as she feels. 

Jason nods once. We have no choice.

"If you knew who we were," he speaks, "you'd be worried about us, not our parents. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because we're going to send you right back to Tartarus."

Porphyrion supports one hand on his knee to look at them closer. "So... we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tatarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen. Hello, Hera."

"My husband destroyed you once, monster! He'll do it again!"

"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth—and we will destroy you at the roots."

"You wouldn't dare..."

"Oh, yes. The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees—your eldest roots torn out and burned."

"You said a demigod killed you," Jason raises his voice. "How, if we're so puny?"

"Ha! You think I would explain it to you? I was created to be Zeus's replacement, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife—or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, child, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of smashing you to a grease spot!"

"We don't need you to tell us," Ara lifts her sword again. "We're perfectly capable of coming up with a new method."

"Be my guest, little godling," he summons a spear from the ground, slams his foot, and the monsters they had spent the last twenty minutes killing are all brought back to life. 

Ara curses, and then she prays, but instead of reaching out to pros like Ares, or Zeus, she talks to her mother. "I still have love for Olympus, Mother, would be nice if you did something with that..."

"So, child of Zeus!" The giant slams his spear against an already destroyed chimney just to intimidate them further. "I have finished my boasting. Now it's your turn. What were you saying about destroying me?"

"I'm the son of Jupiter!" Jason lifts himself off the ground by a few inches. "I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion—I slew the Trojan sea monster, I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves."

A roar is heard at the entrance of the house and Ara whirls around in shock: The Nemean lion tackles the wolves and tosses them out of the way as he runs to meet her. She goes to him, and the lion drops and rolls on his belly when he sees her. 

"It's you! Get up, baby, I have a new chew toy for you..." She climbs the lion's back and the animal rises, growling at Porphyrion. 

The giant snarls at him, lifting his spear. Jason jumps with no weapon in hand and clings to the giant's enormous arm, reaching for one of the weapons stuck in his dreadlocks, and stabbing his ear with it. "For Rome!"

Ara leans closer to the lion's ear and pats his head. "The more memories he recovers, the more he sounds like a dork, don't you think?"

Lightning hits Porphyrion as Jason jumps and rolls away before he can get stomped. Ara kicks the lion with her heel and he leaps, slashing and biting off the giant's armor. Porphyrion falls, trying to push the animal away.

While the lion attacks like crazy, Ara does a backflip and lands on solid ground. She can almost hear Lily scolding her about the damage done to her ankles and knees. The girl slashes clay monsters one by one as she runs to where Piper and Leo are.

"No!" Porphyrion grabs the lion from the neck like a badly behaved kitten. "You want to play dirty, godling? You want to use lightning, boy? You forget. I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy your father, which means I know exactly what will kill you!"

"You're nothing but a knock-off!" Ara shouts. Her lion comes to the rescue now that the wolves are trying to eat her. "And we know your weakness!"

"Got it!" Leo shouts.

"Sleep!" Piper exclaims, and the cage crumbles down.

"Yes!" Hera gets out of her enclosure, grows in size, and glows brighter. "Now I shall have my revenge!"

Porphyrion slams his spear against the ground and disappears into thin air while the air charges with power. Hera's ready to finish this off. "Cover your eyes, my heroes!"

Ara hugs the lion and closes her eyes. She doesn't know if this will kill him, he's a type of monster after all, but she hopes Hera will spare him. The Nemean lion is a gift from her mother, and Ara intends to keep it.

Next Chapter ->

Taglist.

siriuslysirius1107 @ask-giggles1303 @ash-the-hoarder @im-planning-something-look @bandshirts-andbooks @coolninjapaper @thewaterlily @whenisthefall @1randomcomic @you-bloody-shank @sunflowergraves @owlalex44 @taylordaughter @typicalsolangelolover @writingmia @espressopatronum454 @slytherinnqueen @orbitingpolaris

[nebulousfishgills]

let's talk about Diplopia!

what prompted you to write it initially? How did you come up with the idea to have them cross into another dimension? Why Twilight and not another of JCB's roles, like Shadowhunters or Sweeney Todd?

would you write another universe-crossing fic like that, either still with JCB or with other actors?

what was your favorite chapter or scene to write in Diplopia? Was there a scene you especially struggled with? Did writing it come in bursts of inspiration or a continuous stream of motivation? Or with the idea, was it a bolt of inspiration or a gradual build?

If, instead of Emily, you'd chosen to create a new OC to complement Caius, what characteristics would you give them? (Emily is fantastic and I love how she works into the story, but I'm curious to see what a "from scratch" Twilight OC would look like)

Do you like Emily's relationship with Henry or Caius better? Which relationship does SHE like better? Does she ever regret leaving Henry behind? If she were to encounter another of their "doppelgangers" (Jace Wayland, Anthony Hope), would she consider a relationship there too?

Ah yes, the strangest thing I've ever written that turned into one of my most complex fics to date... yes, let's absolutely talk about it! Thanks for the ask!

There will be more shitposts because I want to share my stupidity.

How it Began

I think most people know that I hadn't ever planned on touching Twilight with a thirty nine and a half foot pole. I'd grown up hearing about how god awful it was and that it had no redeeming qualities. For god's sake, the final battle never even actually happened! What are the stakes?? What's the point??

Then, of course, Summer of 2022 comes along and we all know what came with it. The further I fell down that rabbit hole, I came to realize that the pretty (fucked up) blonde I was starting to get eyes for... also happened to be in Twilight, among other things. I told myself, quote, "I'm not breaking my No Twilight streak over this."

Then, my roommate and I made the executive decision to celebrate our first week of college by watching Twilight since neither of us ever had. That was a very strange week and I remember having mixed emotions watching all five movies... the main one I remember was watching New Moon and then realizing that this is where that one meme came from:

Fast forward to that Sunday, I had finished Breaking Dawn (roommate dropped out after New Moon, I don't blame them) and was ready to move on with my life. But of course I can't leave well-enough alone. I was talking with a friend over snapchat about just how awful the movies were, providing examples such as the horrid cgi used when Caius' fake death happens and the Denali's rip his jaw off (I'll spare you the imagery). This friend knew about Emily and was very enthusiastic about her, and that's when this happened:

So that's how it was born. A friend from high school theatre gave me the idea, and it all went back to the arson. In fact, she gave me the idea for the fact that Emily had red eyes at this point in time could be a consideration.

The very original idea I had was a lot less serious and more goofy than it actually ended up being. In fact, one of my very first incarnations of the idea was essentially akin to (and this is such a niche reference) the Goof Off from that one episode of My Little Pony where Pinkie Pie and Weird Al try to one up each other to win over Rainbow Dash to prove who's the better Party Pony:

Except, of course, it's Caius and Henry trying to one-up each other to impress Emily. A flower, new clothes, human souls, arson, you get the picture. And Eddie was always going to be there to bear witness to this insanity, keeping essentially a tally of who was "winning" this asenine contest.

Of course, however, a fic like this needed research. I know, it wasn't supposed to be taken super seriously and I could have probably gotten away with using the bare minimum characterization and knowledge the movies gave me, but I don't know how to half ass fics. So, I just opened the wikis and started reading. The information I discovered was... actually a lot more fascinating than I had expected. In fact it taught me more than I had thought to ask.

I remember laughing stupidly hard at Marcus' "death" because I genuinely thought he was just so over everyone's shit that he was like "thank fuck get me away from these weirdos" but NO, this dude's story is so fucking tragic I sort of feel bad for finding that scene as funny as I do. That, and I realized that my central focus, Caius, was just a, quote, "Trigger Happy Wife Guy" who just wasn't fully realized... which of course brought up said wife, but that's a later issue.

Armed with more knowledge, I needed to figure out how this was supposed to go. I couldn't just plop Henry, Emily, and Eddie in Volterra and have this pseudo Goof Off without rhyme or reason. How did we get there, how did this happen, why did this happen, and so on.

I can't put into words how far this fell from my original dumb idea. I repeatedly say even now that the original joke got lost in translation along the way. The primary source of comedy was supposed to be these two guys with almost identical faces fighting over Emily... and then that posed the question. Why would Emily even consider Caius at all? It's a contest of who's in theory the better lover, but why would Emily give Caius any thought other than the uncanny resemblance and maybe the shallow, superficial gifts he could give her?

Answering this question in the place where all my big writing ideas come from (the shower) could arguably be considered my biggest mistake/triumph.

She and Henry had to get into some kind of fight.

It took me a while to figure out what that was about, but eventually the 'joke' helped me figure it out. Diplopia (I was always proud of the cleverness of the title. It's the medical term for having double vision/seeing double) takes place after the events of Stranger Things 4, so by all rights Henry should look like Vecna, right? No, because then the joke wouldn't land the same way. So, you know, for the sake of the story I came up with an explanation. Consuming enough human souls allowed Henry to shed this gross, viney, fleshy skin, which probably meant Emily not only had to work double time to help the effort, but give up sustenance she could have used. Then it all just fell into place, her insecurities about her own Upside-Down modifications, some simmering issues in their relationship they hadn't dealt with, all that shit.

And suddenly pure comedy turned into an angsty valliant effort on Henry's part to win Emily back because he accidentally fucked up. There are still elements of the original idea in the fic, the gifts Caius gives Emily when she's giving Henry the silent treatment, and the tally board Eddie uses is seen when they're trying to figure out how Henry can fix his oopsie...

Which leads me to the fact that the very original one shot I had uploaded to my Stranger Things one-shots book on Wattpad had a different ending.

(Side note, my character arc has been all but abandoning Wattpad except as a means to store drafts. Friendship ended with Wattpad, now AO3 is my new best friend. It only took so long because of interface familiarity; I stopped reading any fics on there aside from my friends' years ago)

Originally, Emily realized all the effort Henry was going through to make her happy again was proof he was the one who knew her the best, her perfect match despite the fact that Caius provided her things she could also find the appeal in... and then I decided to be cheeky and say the entire one shot was a vision Emily had like how Breaking Dawn 2 ended. Armed with foresight, she could decline Caius' offer for them to stay for dinner and she and her two companions could just go home.

So I posted it and left it alone for about... three months.

Then I watched Breaking Dawn 2 again with, actually, @ohitshoneybee and before I knew it, I felt the familiar horrible tendrils forming.

A new hyperfixation.

Of course, before this I had once in a while thought about what would have happened if Emily had just... decided to stay with Caius, but I never went much further with it than small ideas. But NOPE, my stupid ass decided to write a whole continuation that went through all the movies just to see how they would change if Emily became a factor. That became a small winter break project, writing what I called "The Director's Cut" and posting it to an untagged story on Wattpad because originally I just wanted close friends to read it.

This allowed me to get more extensive and creative with the lore. I had The Wife Problem to deal with, sure, but I fixed that quickly and then could proceed with fully weaving Emily into this... frankly mediocre story and making my own improvements (namely trying to make Bella seem less... you know, flat faced and stupid by making her knowledgable about Hawkins, for example). Now Emily could wreck shop and I could get revenge on the franchise that had begun to ruin my life by taking a fat piss on it and putting my OC into it to make it better.

That original version of the longer story had multiple endings, like video games. A Bad Ending, A Neutral Ending, and a Good Ending. The Bad Ending was basically if Alice's vision was a reality and Emily really had lost Caius, the asshole she gave up everything for... it doesn't end well for anyone, lemme tell you. The Neutral Ending was the closest to the movie, the entire battle being a vision and the Volturi just walk away (not without complaints from Emily and Caius of course)... and then because I really wanted to be an asshole, suddenly Emily woke up back in the Upside Down, none of it having ever happened in the first place.

Once I finished the full story, I waited a bit and then decided I'd be brave and not only upload it to Archive of Our Own, but clean it up and try my hand at smut since I figured I was about to turn 19 and I'd wanted to put on big girl shoes for a while at that point... of course it had to be this fic, but you know. I chose to just use my original Good Ending since I had always viewed that as the "canonical" ending, with the Volturi kicking Cullen ass.

So, now here we are, several months later, and I have a sequel in the works. What started as an idea for a comedy one shot has now become arguably my most notable fanfic series with emotional gut punches and general weirdness.

And that's that.

So, that was a lot, but let's keep going with your other questions.

Why Caius?

I can't really provide an honest reason that sounds clever or complex. It's not like I spent hours deciding to go this route out of several others. I suppose the least complicated way to put it is just that Twilight was my first step into branching out to Jamie's other works and the idea grew because of that specifically. Diplopia was always written to make fun of Twilight and because I noticed that both Caius and Emily had this shared trait of liking fire. That's literally it.

Also I think one of the other reasons was the slowly budding desire to expand upon these characters that Stephenie Meyer, frankly, half assed. I've had the discussion with many people about the wasted potential these characters had and how I, in particular, take offense to it beyond the superficial reason that I think Jamie's more talented than such a one note character like Caius was written like displays.

The Volturi is literally a coven of dramatic, theatre kid, art and science nerds that also happen to enforce vampire laws. Since they stand in opposition to the Cullens, naturally that makes them The Bad Guys since what kind of Monster would stand in the way of Bella's happiness? So why should they get any depth?

Thing is, the few traits Meyer gave to the Volturi are traits that describe me exactly. She created the bones for characters that seem specifically curaited to me and my tastes. So their lack of depth and information bothers me excessively because I want to know more and she won't give me that information.

I'm serious, this is part of Caius' page in the Official Guide Book she wrote herself

"Sometime before 1300 BC" "Unknown" "Unknown" Ma'am this is your official guide book that has everything one needs to know about your series, you can fill in these unknown dates! Not to mention the utter lack of respect she gives the wives. They get ONE sentence, and it just says who they're married to.

Stephenie Meyer, you named Caius' wife after Athena (side note, always been my favorite of the Greek Pantheon, another reason I feel a very strong connection with these characters), she's obviously a badass, not a trophy wife who gets high.

A pet project I wanna start is to write my own guide book about the Volturi using the bones she gave, but adding my own ideas, giving these characters depth, including ideas from fics and blogs that also feel the same way as I do.

All this to say, aside from the main reason I gave, I chose Caius because, in a sense, he and his wacky, weird coven chose me. I feel very protective over these characters and I want to give them their dues. I don't claim to be the ultimate say in this since I'm a baby in the fandom and others have wonderful ideas I subscribe to, not the other way around. But still.

Other Universes?

I don't want to rule out the possibility, but Diplopia/Necrosis really feels like a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. I don't think the same effect could be felt if, say, they ran into Alicent Hightower for some reason.

(Ironic, considering I did actually find a fic shipping Alicent with the Three Stooges Kings... unfortunately it's written in Spanish soooo...)

This has been a trope I've liked to at least play with a little bit in the past, though. I remember a long time ago I thought it'd be a funny idea if my Avengers OC ran into Thomas Sharpe from Crimson Peak, a character played by Tom Hiddleston aka Loki (who she's shipped with). I never did anything with it beyond a few texts with a friend discussing the idea of Olivia and Edith duking it out.

However as of right now, I don't really forsee another forray into the Doppleganger Crossover realm anytime soon.

The Actual Writing

Favorite Scene/Chapter - Honestly I love many scenes in this fic for many different reasons. There was a certain satisfaction that came with writing Henry and Emily's big arguement and inserting Emily into the events of the actual series was wildly fun.

Although I think my favorite scenes to write in this story are as of yet unpublished scenes in its sequel, Necrosis, that I can't talk about for spoiler reasons but have been written because I'm impatient. There are two chapters in particular there that I'm immensely proud of, one where Emily is a complete girlboss and the immediate aftermath where she has a long talk with another character about her past, why she did what she did in the previous chapter, and her feelings about everything she's done as a whole, it's a very touching scene...

That's probably cheating, though, so for the sanctity of the question, I think my favorite scene in Diplopia is either the scene where the secretary has to find plane tickets to get the coven to the Cullens and the computer is infuriating everyone or the scene where Caius and Emily are talking, ah, "post coitus" about their pasts and, specifically, what happened to Athenodora.

Struggles - The smut, for one, since I'd never written smut to actually post before, and I hadn't even written anything smutty at all in a very long time. I'm getting more comfortable with it since it's something I want to include in my writing, this one in particular. It just takes me a whiiiiiile to hype myself up enough to do it. Plus, I know there's the question of whether smut is "necessary for the plot," but trust me, for Necrosis in particular any spicy scenes are important. The reason why will become more obvious as the story progresses.

Also, writing Henry and Emily's goodbye was extremely hard. I'm very protective of them and their relationship and it's something that's very important to me. I think the goodbye made the situation more real to me. I wanted to do it because then I could move on to the fun stuff later in the story, but that scene was very hard on me emotionally. I suppose that brings up the question as to why I did this in the first place, but the only real answer I can give is "shits and giggles." I'm not ashamed to admit I was crying while writing it, and the fact that "Slipping Through My Fingers" from Mamma Mia happened to come up on my shuffle while it was happening...

Motivation - The motivation was strange for sure. Nine times out of ten when I write my fics the motivation to write comes in bursts after days or even weeks being absent. Diplopia was no different. I remember it took me a while to get the original one shot done, but that wasn't necessarily a motivation issue, more like a... "once I go through with this, I can't go back, I'll have officially written Twilight fanfiction" and it was... kind of a battle to come to terms with that, and then overcoming my motivation wave.

This also brings up how I plan my fics... usually I don't plan aside from mentally, but for this one, once I decided to go full send on the Director's Cut, I knew I had to somewhat shape what I wanted to do and have it written down. So I started my trend of writing long messages to myself on a Discord server with only me in it devoted to sending myself stuff or writing down ideas. There are pages worth of notes on Diplopia and Necrosis in there. And when I get more ideas, I just add to it. The idea train never stops with me.

Emily vs. Another OC

Being honest, there were a few times where I had an errant thought or two about coming up with a whole new OC to ship with Caius aside from Emily. I never went anywhere with it other than an idea or two about a backstory or a personality, though, and I don't plan on going further than that. Here's why.

By far, Emily is my most developed, well-rounded OC. As a Twilight OC, she has an entire, fully fleshed out backstory that comes from her "past" as a Stranger Things OC. She works incredibly well as a match for Henry, but she's also very compatable with Caius. My ability to ship her with both of them very seamlessly just feels natural and my best route to go with. For all intents and purposes, Emily is my OC for Twilight just as much as she is my OC for Stranger Things.

The only thing I can think of that makes her Stranger Things ties... we'll say stronger is that she can exist as a Stranger Things character without her additional Twilight lore, but she cannot exist as a Twilight OC without at the very least her base level Stranger Things lore...

I say "base level" and I mean basically everything up until she meets Henry (so her mother giving her up, her shitty orphanage she eventually runs away from etc). I have another one shot planned where Emily manages to avoid the trauma of HNL entirely and skips right to Italy with Caius... and an additional detail but that's another conversation.

So, wouldn't it be easier to come up with a whole new OC without those Hawkins ties?

Well, maybe, but the thing is that she wouldn't be nearly as developed as I would like. And I feel like at a certain point she'd just feel like Emily, just without the baggage. It's just not in my interest to do such a thing.

However.

There are some ideas that I have that just don't quite work with Emily. She's so developed that there are things that just aren't in character for her. Her personality and presence is so unique that at a certain point there's no room for additional base level nuance. She can only change slightly with a "hypothetical" character development, and emphasis on the "slightly."

But you know who could benefit from this base level nuance that Emily can't use? Who is in desperate need of some filling to her character?

Athenodora.

Let's get something clear, Thena is Stephenie Meyer's character, I'm not saying I'm just straight up stealing her character and calling it an OC. But remember how I said I wanted to make it a project to expand upon these near empty husks of characters with my own ideas and headcanons?

All the traits I can't use with Emily I could in theory give to my revamp (no pun intended) of Athenodora. I mentioned a few asks ago how I had a one shot idea cooking that doesn't involve Emily. That one shot is basically going to be me writing out Athenodora's story. Who she was before, where she came from, how she was turned, how she met Caius, and so on. All the stuffing that could have gone into a half assed OC can be added to Thena, a character with bones who needs meat.

So, tl;dr, Emily is the defacto Twilight OC for me, but any and all energy that I could hypothetically put into a from-scratch character would be much better utilized in giving substance to a character that needs it much more.

Team Henry vs. Team Caius

Oh boy! Well, this is the real question for sure. I knew at some point I'd be asked for my opinion on the matter. And after a long, hard debate with myself, my answer is...

I can't pick.

I know, it's such a cop-out answer, but I genuinely cannot decide who's the better match for Emily at the end of the day. It's a cliché but it's like asking me to pick a favorite child. They both have pros and cons, and it's a completely subjective opinion based on the individual which of those pros and cons hold more weight. For example, I know you seem to prefer Emily with Henry for any number of reasons, meanwhile my best friend has a certain preference for her being with Caius for other reasons.

In an ironic twist, this is my Team Edward or Team Jacob in more than just the love triangle object. When it came to Bella, Jacob was the childhood friend who came with what was familiar and Edward was the vampire who came with the family that Bella had lacked to a certain degree.

Sound familiar?

For me, my preference changes with my mood on the situation, and that mood can change in seconds, back and forth.

Sometimes I re-read His Tenebris Moenibus or the other associated one shots and I feel like the absolute worst for taking away, quote, "the only thing [Henry's] ever loved" and how he wants to reshape the world for both of them just so he can make Emily truly happy because of that love he has for her. And I made her break it off with this man because I got the urge to create chaos?? The trauma bonding, the shared goals and ideas, the willingness to literally destroy the world for each other, it's endearing.

And then I take a look at the other side of things. I sometimes forget the base level circumstances as to how this happened in the first place because, to me, Emily falling in love with Caius also has a certain natural way about it. It feels like a legitament, viable option. Similar to Emily and Henry, they're damaged individuals who help each other essentially patch each other up. I think the only reason this fact can fall through is the fact that I just haven't been able to show just how badly Thena's death had affected Caius before Emily showed up since one, the aforementioned under-developing of their characters and relationship by proxy, and two, it's very hard to not only create that from scratch, but blend that in when I have to balance so many other more important plot threads.

Not only that, but as I said, Caius came with a family, something Emily's been without but secretly longed for. She has so many siblings and friends, "more than [she] know[s] what to do with," who help support her and provide a different sort of love to her. Aro's her strange older brother who she fights with, sure, but also sees somewhat of herself in (namely the fact that they're both batshit insane at times and have... spotty pasts). Sulpicia's her matronly sister who in many ways is a rock for Emily to keep her from going too wild, but also can act as another woman who can understand her. Marcus is... just there, unfortunately. He has his own issues and typically Emily's too haywire to pay much attention to him.

And the Guard of course! Her relationship with Jane is I think what Emily wanted her relationship with Eleven to be like. Even if Jane is much older technically, their older/younger sister type bond is incredibly special to Emily, Alec is just a bonus. And we have characters like Heidi, who help Emily branch out and be her own unique self or even yet unseen dynamics with Felix or Demetri. It's a whole support system and Caius is just the cherry on top, someone who genuinely cares for her and wants her to be her best self... even if they light things on fire along the way.

Now as for what Emily thinks...

I think like me, she's not entirely sure who she truly prefers at the end of the day. She knows and understands everything that I said a second ago, just much more personally which makes it an even harder choice.

What I do know is that she never regrets the relationships she had with either of them. She knows they both provided things she needed and she helped them in her own ways as well. Though, and I've said this before, when Emily's with Caius, a small part of her always will long for Henry because of the fact that she's essentially frozen in time still feeling that love for him. Nothing is going to change that. So by proxy sometimes she feels regret for leaving him, but that's not mutually exclusive to also regreting her relationship with Caius. She can regret leaving Henry while also being very happy as she is with Caius at the same time.

Caius also knows that Emily has this deep seeded love and longing for Henry and he will never ever try to erase that. He knows how much Henry meant to her and will never ever say Emily should never have been with Henry. He knows she loves him, and she also loves Henry. He can live with that.

I can't exactly speak on Henry's feelings since I don't exactly know what they are. That's not me just avoiding the question. Since I don't have season 5 to guide me, I don't know how his story wraps up. It seems odd considering this is fanfiction so why should I care about canon, but I feel like I need to know how Henry's story wraps up in season 5 so I know how it wraps up when Emily is with him, and then I have to remove her from that new equation. I'm making it harder than it needs to be, but that's how my brain is choosing to operate.

At least in part though, he feels like if she's happy, then he's happy. In a way, he did give her happiness like he promised, now that I think of it that way.

Some other possible Jamie Variants?

As I said, this story was very curaited to pitting Caius against Henry because that's just how it developed from the start. But I have thought about this question a little bit since clearly Emily Has A Type, so why shouldn't we think about Jamie's other characters?

I think the next most likely candidate would be Jace. Personality wise, he and Emily have similarities. Their snark, their I'll say off-putting demeanors, among other things. That, and their aesthetics are similar. Emily's got tattoos and dresses alternatively, same as Jace. Plus, I think Emily would also be Jace's type since Emily and Clary have some similar traits like their red hair colors and brown eyes.

The primary problem I see with this is kind of a big one, though. Jace is a part-angel demon hunter. Emily is quite literally, for all intents and purposes, a demon. It would make for an interesting variant of the "two lovers on opposing sides of a war" trope, but that seems like a reaaaaaalllllly hard thing to bypass... oh but goddammit Emily as a Shadowhunter sounds like such a badass concept.

SHIT

I'm gonna move on.

Sweet little Anthony Hope I feel like is a much lower candidate. Emily doesn't quite fit in his world, nor does Anthony fit in hers. Emily's far too much of a psychotic bitch for him. Plus, this would have to be like, a younger version of Emily since in Diplopia (our baseline), she's 38, a whole 20 years Anthony's senior. That, and there would also have to be time travel used since Sweeney Todd takes place 159 years before that. I shouldn't really factor in these logical aspects since nothing about Diplopia was logical in the first place, but I can't help consider it.

They don't seem that compatable to me. Anthony should just stick with Johanna.

This one is more for fun, but let's analyze Kit Marlowe. I'll get the obvious out of the way, but there's a slim chance Kit would even be looking in Emily's direction in the first place. If we bypass that, I feel like if we put these characters on a spectrum of hypothetical compatability, Kit would be somewhere in the middle. He and Emily have some similarities, but I feel like if they spent too long with each other, they'd butt heads often. Emily's clingy and Kit pushes people away. That's not very conducive to a good relationship. But they do have a shared interest in more macabre things and both see themselves as damned and irredeemable creatures.

If I'm being honest, the most likely outcome for this, provided Kit is willing to have relations with women in the first place, is a friends with benefits situation more than anything.

In fact, let's have fun. If we put Henry and Caius on a shelf and let Emily play the bachelorette, we have a very clear cut game of Fuck, Marry, Kill for her. None of the options are perfect like with most games of FMK, but if we really break it down, Emily would...

Fuck Kit, Marry Jace, Kill Anthony

But I feel like now is a good time to mention that at certain spots in Diplopia and Necrosis, you can see small influences and references to these other characters.

Emily mentioned a girl from Saint Valentina's that she lit the mattress of on fire. Her name was Clarissa and she "thought she was basically an angel" which is me referencing Clary, and Jace by proxy.

This one is more loose, but to a certain degree, on Caius' part, I feel like in his mind there's a certain "I'll steal you, Johanna" element to how he feels when first meeting Emily. You can take that as you wish, but Johanna was the first "Every Breath You Take" regardless of who's singing it, iconic and adorable as that scene is.

Lastly, this is moreso in Necrosis, but I very specifically call out how in one scene Caius is wearing a black dress pants and a black Elizabethan blouse that was open in the front with his hair slightly wavy and touching his shoulders. This is me describing Kit Marlowe in essence, specifically that scene when he's talking to Will about ambitions and then they kiss (jcbbby would know what scene I mean for sure). Frankly, the Twilight budget was strained when it came to wigs, especially in Breaking Dawn for the Volturi, but to me, if you made Kit's hair Targaryen silver-blonde and he had the red eyes of course, that's my ideal Caius, full stop.

In a few ways I tried to make Diplopia/Necrosis a sort of melting pot for Jamie characters, some elements more subtle than the others, so if you really think about it Emily gets to have all these characters.

And all of this is without mentioning the fact that Emily is also attracted to women, but that's a conversation for another day.

***

Phew, that was a lot! Thanks for the ask and I hope this isn't too exhaustive of a read!

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

So we've had Speedgate, Sharkgate...time for another, I think. Hehe...Tentaclegate! In Love For A Woman, Jacob mentions that Bella seems like the type to be into tentacles. Would she truly be into that sort of thing? And, hell, let's bring the rest of the Cullens into this, too. Would any of the rest of them be into it?

...

Jesus, Anon, alright.

Would Bella Be Into Tentacles

I want to say no but the real answer is that it depends on the situation.

As of canon as well as For the Love of a Woman? No, she's not interested. Part of the appeal of vampires to Bella is that they're otherworldly beautiful, tentacles are not. Not to mention she's head over heels for Edward and for all fandom likes to think of her as horny she's really not. I'd call her more... a hopeless romantic.

A tentacle monster that doesn't love her, presumably doesn't even know her, and just wants to have its way with her.

Ew.

However, I did say 'it depends'. So, god help us, here we go.

Bella somehow comes across a tentacle monster that no one in the world has noticed before. Despite being a tentacle monster, it proves to be very mysterious, intelligent, and very interested in her (as its presumably first contact with mankind/another sentient species). Bella quickly becomes its universe and Bella, in turn, finds herself drawn to her tentacle monster friend (we'll call him Squishy).

Per Squishy's existence, Bella is more than she has ever been before. She's not just some clumsy, dumb, girl but the only friend Squishy has and an important aspect of somebody's life.

Bella's not sure she's making it up but as time passes it seems that Squishy might actually be in love with her. After a good long while of thinking this over, Bella decides that she's in love with Squishy too. They're all each other really has in this world, after all.

As a result, things likely would culminate in Squishy and Bella making love and Bella becoming pregnant with his Lovecraftian tentacle babies.

But even then it's not so much about the tentacles as is it is Bella desperately needing self-esteem. As usual.

But What About the Cullens?

The rest of the Cullens don't have Bella's self-esteem issues but we'll see how this goes. And, obviously, I'm assuming that each participant is willing and this is something they can freely decline.

Alice

If she sees herself porking Squishy then pork Squishy she does. Alice doesn't reject her own visions and always goes by what she sees as the best paths. A little weird that the best path involves her fucking a tentacle monster but, hey, who is Alice to judge her future self?

I imagine she would find the idea a little... disquieting though.

Carlisle

No. His life is a very surreal place in which he somehow might end up in a circumstance with tentacles involved. Who knows, maybe a la Blue Moon, Edward's tried to pimp Carlisle out to Squishy with Esme's permission because this somehow ties back to Bella. Carlisle's not sure how this works either.

Regardless, his answer is no.

Unless...

Oh, Carlisle.

Let's say that Carlisle does not discover the diet when he does. He goes to freeze himself at the North Pole but instead ends up in an alternate dimension. There, he meets the highly intelligent, sentient, Squishy.

Well, Carlisle's stuck starving in a bottomless void, and Squishy is now his only companion and becomes his best friend. A beautiful friendship is born, enough time happens in this infinite void and... if Squishy's interested, I imagine Carlisle would be shockingly easy to seduce in this state.

So yes, in the Lovecraftian horror dimension between worlds, Carlisle strikes up a relationship with Squishy.

Edward

No.

Edward loathes the way he himself looks. A tentacle monster? That's even more grotesque than his own form. The only chance he'd ever do this is as a form of self punishment, to debase himself beyond all imagining and prove himself a monster. He could do it, but he'd have to be at his ultimate low.

He wasn't even at that low of a low when he thought Bella committed suicide because of his actions.

Emmett

Squishy is not a woman/in human woman shape. Emmett says no. He ain't going there. No how no way.

Esme

Yes.

Esme's life is such a surreal pile of weird after she's turned that "oh, by the way, you also have to sleep with Squishy" would be right in line with the rest of it. She wouldn't even blink. Though I imagine she'd be very dubious, especially given her background. But if Squishy is a gentle and courteous lover, and everyone else assures Esme that fucking Squishy is what we do, then yeah, I can see it.

Jasper

At his lowest low, Squishy propositions Jasper, I imagine he accepts in a daze of depression and self loathing. From there an actual relationship is slowly built up in which Jasper sees Squishy as his guiding light. It's a beautiful relationship. With tentacles.

Rosalie

No.

Never.

No.

She would run as far and as fast as she could in the other direction and never look back.

[resident-leevil-old]

okay well anyways somebody asked me if i felt like talking about my raccoon city survivors au with mia and ethan again and the answer is YES.

> AU MINI FACTS <

- Ethan's mother died while giving birth.

- Ethan Winters and his father moved into Raccoon City when Ethan was a baby, around 3-4 years old.

- Ethan trans ftm because im trans and i said so.

- Mia trans mtf because im trans and i said so.

- Ethan & Mia are childhood friend to lovers in this au.

- Ethan's father worked for Umbrella, and Mia's father worked for the Connections while her mother also worked for Umbrella.

- Mia was born in Texas, but her family moved to Raccoon City after she was born. They still owned property in Texas, though.

- Mia & Carlos are related because I said so.

- so yknow the "dude its been three years" guy? that's their childhood friend and his name is Kyde because i said so.

- Albert Wesker Personally was ordered by Spencer to kill those scientists btw.

- a lot of this au is because i said so tbh

> AU SUMMARY <

Ethan Winters, Mia Oliviera, and Kyde Wells work together to survive six days of the Raccoon City Outbreak. In the process they uncover secrets and encounter many obstacles that just nearly cost them their lives.

> CHAR.BGROUND <

ETHAN W, SR - A scientist who worked for Umbrella. He lost his wife during the birth of his child E///// Winters. Struggling with the death of his wife and the harsh decline of his mental health, he began to experiment with viruses and vaccines in an attempt to bring his wife back, even using his child as a subject at certain points due to the child having strong genes from the mother. He acknowledged that he was a horrid father, but justified his actions by claiming he would bring back a better mother. He thought of Albert Wesker as a friend, and told him the truth of his research.

ETHAN W, JR - A quiet 14 year old that had a hard time making friends. Due to experiments from his father, Ethan is a culmination of infections and viruses that each impact him in different ways. As he grew up Ethan refrained from talking too much as to not interrupt his father's work, causing him to become selectively mute.

MIA OLIVIERA - Younger sister of Carlos Oliviera. Mia skipped a grade due to her intelligence and advanced knowledge on many things kids her age normally didn't. She very easily got sick as a child, though she seemed to outgrow it as she got older. She was schooled both at home and at school before the outbreak. She shared classes with Ethan Winters (Jr) and Kyde Wells.

KYDE WELLS - A friend of Ethan & Mia, known for his cowardice. Kyde has a heavy sense of self preservation, but a weighted sense of compassion as well. He only ever has risked himself for his two friends.

JAMES HARISON - Mia's father. He worked for the Connections as a scientist and a researcher. Harison and his wife often exchanged information they learned from their jobs, aiming to and succeeding at "fixing" their daughter's proneness to viral sicknesses.

MARISA OLIVIERA - Mia's mother. He worked for Umbrella as a researcher. Oliviera and her husband often exchanged information they learned from their jobs, aiming to and succeeding at "fixing" their daughter's proneness to viral sicknesses.

JAKE VERANO - An Umbrella worker who had been trapped in the underground facility for a week, listening to the sound of his coworkers being eaten alive. Unstable because of his experience, he tries to create a cure using the intel of Ethan W (SR).

> FULL AU <

[September, 25, 1998.]

Ethan Winters walked home from school when his father failed to pick him up. He walked through the streets, paying no mind to a big fight breaking out near him. On the way home, he meets up with his friend Kyde who had also been walking home. They talk and walk together for a bit, before splitting up.

When Ethan arrived home, he noticed the front door of his house had been opened slightly. Confused, but wary, he entered the house, knowing it was uncharacteristic for his father to forget the door was open.

He entered the living room, and found his father laying on the ground dead, shot twice in the head, having just been killed moments prior. Ethan moved over to his father, before Albert Wesker walked out of his father's office.

Ethan barely has much time to react to him, overwhelmed by his own panic and the death of the only adult in his life. Wesker - wanting no witnesses - shoots him three times in the chest, and leaves under the impression the child is dead for good.

Ethan Winters dies for the first time that evening.

[September, 27, 1998]

For the past two days, Mia and her parents have been barricaded in their home, unable to leave safely. Mia sat in her room for most of the time, unable to look out of the windows due to boards covering them. During those two days Mia tries to call Ethan and Kyde several times in hopes that they were safe. Neither of them answer.

Until this day, the 27th, at 2:00 am, when she calls Ethan. And he answers.

{TRANSCRIPT OF THEIR CALL:}

Ethan: h-hello?

Mia: [Ethan]! You're alive! Are you okay?

Ethan: I'm breathing. [Pause] I'm breathing. You okay?

Mia: I'm boarded up in my house, we can't leave safely. Everything is a mess. I'm so glad you're alive, [Ethan]. Are you safe? I'm guessing you're safe.

Ethan: Not sure. Not sure. Find you soon, here alone. Alone.

Mia: Alone? What happened? Where's your dad?

Ethan: [Pause.] [Loud sound in the distance.]

Mia: [Ethan]? Are you okay?

Ethan: [Dial tone.]

Mia speaks with her parents about the call, expressing worry about her friend. She spends a while trying to convince her parents that Ethan may be alive (purposefully omitting the dial tone) and need their help. Finally, they agree, and at 12 pm, they head out with all the resources they could gather.

Managing to stay out of sight, the family make it to the Winters' household. They find Ethan hiding in his bedroom, one infected laying in the hallway with a pole through its head and Ethan's father laying in the living room dead.

They rescue Ethan, and flee from the house. Mia's parents explain that they need to evacuate the city, but that they wouldn't be able to drive, so they'd have to move on foot. They returned to their house and rested for the night.

[September, 28, 1998]

The family and Ethan head out again, this time aiming to evacuate the city. After several close encounters with large groups of infected, the kids and Mia's parents are unfortunately separated. Given instructions by her parents, Mia leads Ethan through the city, having to take detours due to infected blocking pathways.

Eventually, during the night, they run into Kyde, who has lost his parents trying to escape the city. The three of them take refuge in an empty abandoned house, and rest for the walk in the morning.

Ethan sits up for a while, thinking about what happened to him, and trying to figure out how to explain it to his friends. Eventually he falls asleep, unable to figure it out. In the morning they head out again.

[September, 29-30, 1998]

During another detour taken due to large groups of infected, Ethan is kidnapped by a man in a white lab coat.

Mia & Kyde go after them, refusing to leave Ethan behind. They manage to find him after roughly half a day had passed.

Ethan had been in a hysterical state and through tears he explains to Mia and Kyde what had happened to him in his house a few days ago, confessing that he had died and revived two days later. He warns the two of them that whatever Jake, the white lab coat man, did to him, it made him dangerous and unstable.

Mia and Kyde refused again to leave him behind, and spend hours gathering information from files and research left scattered around. They manage to make Something that was able to calm him down and cleanse what they had learned had been called the "T-virus" from his body.

As soon as Ethan had woken up again, they fleed the facility, Mia & Kyde both making sure he didn't collapse on the way.

[October, 1, 1998]

They don't stop running when they're out. A broadcast goes out saying that the city will be blown up in four hours due to being unable to contain the outbreak. The three of them realize they won't be able to get out if they take anymore detours unless they find a vehicle with gas in it and a clear road to drive on.

Three hours later, out of options, nearly to the city boarder, and faced with another group of infected blocking the only straight shot out, they decide to risk a run through. However, just as they were pushing through, a helicopter flew overhead and spotted them. Calling to them, the pilot tells them to attempt making it up a building nearby if they could.

Through pure bullshittery and luck, they manage to make it up, and they board the helicopter. Just as it begins to take flight, the city starts to blow up bit by bit. In the distance, they see other helicopters flying.

> AFTER THE AU <

Mia and her parents reunite, her parents having managed to get out before the children did. Kyde goes to live with his relatives in Texas, and Ethan is offered to live with them as well.

Mia's parents move back to their texas home, and everyone who had been in the city were given therapy. Eventually the three grow up and graduate from highschool, and move on to other things, never once separating.

The three of them eventually move into a single house together in California, and some time after that Mia and Ethan get married. And for a while they live happily

And then, Mia witnesses Ethan having some sort of attack in the middle of the night one time, and realizes that he hadn't been completely cured of whatever had been infecting him in the city at all, and that it had only gone dormant for some years. While he wasn't vicious or attacking anyone, Ethan had just been really plagued and didn't even remember the fits that only seemed to happen every other night.

Out of worry and fear, Mia begins to work for the Connections, hoping there was something she could learn from them in order to help her husband finally be cured. And years after, RE7 began.

And THAT, my friends, is my Raccoon City Survivors au with the Winters, also known as Raccoon City Winters.

[marauders70s]

a collection of dumb hp-p&r text memes

dumbledore, gesturing: could a depressed person make this???

mcgonagall: your hand is literally rotting off

---

harry: sometimes I feel like arguing with you is like arguing with the sun.

hermione: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT I AM SUPER CHILL ALL THE TIME.

---

pansy: you look awful

draco: what up bitch i just ran a 5k

pansy: really?

draco: no i threw up blood in the shower

pansy: that fight with potter really got ya down huh

---

harry: hey ron are you okay

ron, wearing the locket, staring straight ahead at a tree: yeah i'm fine it's just that life is pointless and nothing matters and I'm always tired.

harry: hermione it's your turn

---

sirius, at any minor convenience: everything hurts and i'm dying

---

goyle: I once knew a guy for seven years and never learned his name. best friend i ever had. we still never talk sometimes, because he's dead.

---

oliver: sometimes you gotta do a little work so you can ball a lot.

mcgonagall: that is incorrect

---

james, during house arrest: If I keep my body moving, and my mind occupied at all times, I will avoid falling into a bottomless pit of despair.

lily, from the couch: oops

---

snape, at a christmas dinner: I can still smell her hair at night

dumbledore, pouring a generous amount of mulled wine: Put some alcohol in your mouth to block the words from coming out.

---

ron: hermione, i'm not using your color coded talking planner

hermione: we need to get good grades on our OWLs!

ron: there's nothing that could motivate me to use it

hermione: well, there's nothing we can't do if we work work hard, never sleep, and shirk from all other responsibilities in our lives.

---

harry: Professor, I wanna go home early. Ooh, hold on actually, hang on. Yeah, no, I wanna quit and never come here again.

---

ron: i'm going to tell you all my secrets

hermione: you don't have to do that

ron: I once forgot to brush my teeth for five weeks

ron: I didn't actually break charlie's wand all the way I just hid it and forgot where

ron: I don't know who scrimgeour is and at this point I'm too afraid to ask.

ron: when they have 2 sickles a scoop on salamander eyes i'm not sure where the rest of the salamander goes

ron: when i was a baby fred turned my teddy into a spider and i got so scared my mum took me to a mindhealer and they wrote a textbook about me

ron: i once threw a garden gnome so hard that it hit my sister in the face and began attacking her

hermione, looking up from her book: what did ginny do?

ron: she bit it and it ran off.

hermione: classic

---

severus: no matter what i do nothing bad can happen to me. i'm like a white wizengamot official who pretended they were mind-controlled after the fall of the dark lord

lucius: I resent that

---

sirius: thank merlin my great uncle alphard just died so I am fluuuuusheeeeeed with galleeeeooonsss

remus: I'm going to regret this flatshare

---

seamus: i passed up a gay halloween party to see this troll. Do you know how much fun gay Halloween parties are? Last year I saw three Peverell Brothers make out with three Viktor Krums. It was amazing.

---

luna: We need to remember what's important in life. Friends, unpredictable creatures, and school. Or unpredictable creatures, friends, school. It doesn't matter. But school is third.

---

tom riddle: I totally hear you, but I also don't like what you're saying. So if you say no, I will release a giant snake in the bathroom

---

luna: would you like some -

hermione: no! I am going to run for minister of magic someday, so no, thank you. I mean, not that I haven't - I ate a brownie once at quidditch cup party. It was intense. It was kind of indescribable, actually. I felt like I was floating. Turns out there wasn't any potions in the brownie, it was just an insanely good brownie.

---

sirius: do i look like the kind of person who drinks water

---

neville: flying is the worst. I know it keeps you healthy, but merlin, at what cost?

ron: okay, you don't have to join the pick up game -

neville: no no i want to be included. i'll come

---

james: What I hear when I’m being yelled at is people caring really loudly at me.

sirius: that's not right

---

mcgongall: I think you’ve got several options. They’re all terrible…but you have them.

peter: this career counseling session is getting a bit intense

---

neville: how are you handling the...breakup...

ginny: I’m gonna buy some sweat pants and a Gilderoy Lockhart novel. Might as well lean into it.

---

dumbledore, in the staff room, extremely intoxicated: Who hasn’t had gay thoughts?

---

james: Goodbye, Lily Evans, my head girl partner. Hello, Lily Potter, my fallopian princess.

lily: i should have never married you. or at least made you wear a condom

james: what's a-

---

sprout: I’m a simple lesbian. I like pretty, dark-haired women, and man-killing plants.

---

sirius: A couple more rules: if you ever read a sad book, you have to wear mascara so we can see whether or not you’ve been crying. There’s no noise allowed on Mondays. And no magic after breakfast.

peter: er i'm sorry this was the dorm assigned to me...

---

remus: Hogwarts Library is headed by the most diabolical, ruthless bureaucrat I’ve ever seen. She's like a death eater but instead of avada kedavra and crucio she uses shame and shhhing.

james: she wouldn't let him into the restricted section without a note

remus, choking back tears: I AM A PREFECT

---

pansy: I have never flown the high road. But I tell other people to ‘cause then there’s more room for me on the low road.

---

hermione: If I had a stripper’s name, it would be Equality. for house elves and all beings.

ron: if i had a stripper's name it would be sugar striped candy pole for my -

harry: hermione, DON'T -

---

sir cadogen: You know, in the 1880’s, there were a few years that were pretty rough and tumble here at Hogwarts. This depicts kind of a famous fight between Morpheus Rane, a prefect in Slytherin house, and Wilhemena Batlock, a Hufflepuff seventh year. The original title of this painting was ‘A Lively Fisting.’ But y’know, they had to change it for…obvious reasons.

---

bellatrix, in the afterlife: i regret nothing. the end.

---

harry: I don’t want to be overdramatic, but today felt like a hundred years in hell and the absolute worst day of my life.

tofty: I'm sorry but you WILL have to repeat your history of magic OWL

---

james: Lucky for me, I’ve processed all my feelings. And I’ve gone through the five stages of grief - Denial, anger, picking on Peter, cat adoption, reckless dueling, cat returning to the adoption place, reading all Martin Miggs books in the series (what i was picking on peter for actually), and not giving a flying fuck.

remus: you can't say fuck

james: oh great i'm going to have to start the process all over again.

remus: peter, you'd better run

---

dudley: I’m allergic to magic candy. Every time I eat more than 80 sweeties I barf.

fred: how about...81

---

sirius: I’ll have a glass of your most expensive red wine mixed with a glass of your cheapest white wine served in a dog bowl. Silly straws all around, please.

remus: this is why we can't date in public

---

neville: I’m gonna get drunk and then I’m gonna order a three course meal where each course is made of dessert.

---

arthur: I promised myself I was not going to cry tonight, and I’ve already broken that promise five times. But I will not break it a sixth.

bill: dad maybe you shouldn't give a toast while fleur's family is still here

---

gilderoy: I have no idea what I’m doing, but I know I’m doing it really, really well.

---

pansy: Use him. Abuse him. Lose him. That’s the Parkinson motto.

draco: I thought the Parkinson motto is don't look at me you whore.

pansy: the motto is really more like a chapter book.

---

harry: You’re ridiculous and pureblood rights is nothing.

voldemort: wow

---

tonks: I would like a glass of red wine and I’ll take the cheapest one you have because I can’t tell the difference.

sirius: cheers i'll drink to that

remus: put. the bowl. down.

---

eh, and just one for the road: “I wonder who else was born in Eagleton. Voldemort, probably.” – Leslie Knope

[minervacasterly]

The caricature of Margaret Beaufort:

From pop culture POV and the POV of those influenced by it, this powerful matriarch is all of the following: Religious nut case! Bitch. She killed the princes in the tower! Old and ugly! Screw her! She and her son were the worst thing that happened to England!

And yet her son became the founder of a dynasty that reigned for more than a century and continues to fascinate us. Now on to the real Meg Beaufort. In the White Queen she is all this and that but the real Meg was no religious nut case and she certainly didn't plan the murder of the Princes and you can debate me countless times on this but there is no concrete evidence that she did! Richard had more than enough motive and opportunity to kill the Princes and oh wait before I get the Ricardians on my case, I don't hate Richard. I actually find him interesting, I wouldn't find him interesting if he was perfect. Richard had learned from his brother's mistakes but made mistakes of his own. If he produced the boys then that would've propelled them to sainthood and the last thing he wanted was a cult was already building around Henry VI. What happened with this last monarch is fascinating and you might be wondering -hey! Isn't that the guy they smothered with a pillow in the White Queen? Yeah, that's the one. Except there are so many theories abounding to his death. The first one comes from Bettini who wrote three weeks after the Lancastrian king's death that it was Edward NOT Richard who gave the order. At the time the blame was solely pinned on Edward, so let's not confuse contemporary sources with secondary. Rous and Vergil writing in the Tudor period pinned the murder on Richard and even early Ricardians say that he did it, but with one major difference -*under* Edward's orders. If this is so, one thing we can all agree, if Richard gave the order or personally took care of Henry, it was all done under his brother's command. But this backfired, soon people were attributing all sorts of miracles to this guy, he became more famous in death than he had ever been in life. Edward tried hard to suppress this cult but he couldn't and Richard did the next best thing. If you can't beat them, join 'em! He cashed in on the cult and officiated a reburial of the dead monarch and started all new kinds of celebrations for him but people still talked as they always do. Now if he had produced the dead children as he and his brother had done with the Lancastrian king, then it would've been chaos, complete and utter chaos!

Margaret Beaufort's sole aim up until the princes disappearance in the summer of 1483 was to gain back her son's lands and bring him back safely. She was forced to give him up before after the Lancaster line had been wiped out from the face of the earth by Yorkist forces, ending to some historians' view, the wars of the roses in 1471. Margaret would not see him until the aftermath of Bosworth in 1485. She had little to worry about the first years of his exile, he was with his uncle Jasper, his father's brother. They intended to sail to the French court, a court his uncle knew very well but landed in Brittany instead because of the bad weather. Brittany was not on good terms with the French and they had their fair share of enmity with the English so it served the Duke well to have two valuable English hostages, one who had a considerable (if debatable) claim to the English throne via his mother. Edward attempted to coax the old Duke into give up his charge and while the Duke never believed Edward's intentions, some of his ministers did and those who didn't just wanted to cash in on the juicy rewards. Henry was an intelligent youth who was far from the serious and mama's boy he's depicted in today's fiction. He loved to laugh, play, joke and gamble. But he was aware how valuable he was and at one point feigned sickness and took sanctuary in a church when he suspected his future voyage to England was a hoax -which it was -and that small trickery on his part saved him.

By 1480, Margaret had more than enough to worry, but she wasn't giving up on her son's legacy. With Edward's promise to marry him to his eldest daughter, Margaret continued to rely on the faith that gave comfort to so many women in this period, and Edward's promise, albeit a fake one, was something she never let go of. The accession of Richard and Anne changed all that. Always an opportunist at heart, she tried to curry favor with the new regime. Whether she agreed with it or not -we will never know but her husband was an official in Richard's government and she had more than enough reason to believe that Richard would grant her her request to bring her son back. After all he was more busy convincing everyone his brother had never been legally married to Elizabeth and securing his position. But surprise, surprise for Margaret and everyone involved. Her life was never easy, it was one obstacle after another and this was no different. The boys' disappearance changed everything and Buckingham's rebellion gave her a chance she had never considered before. Her moment to shine had come. She was no longer looking to bring her son back as a mere earl but as a king so she started plotting with the queen dowager through her Welsh doctor. After a lot of plotting and intrigue and tragedy at Richard's court, her son's shining moment came and thanks to the defection of his stepfather from Richard's camp to his side, he won. There is a famous myth that his stepfather, Thomas Stanley found the crown in a thorn bush but this is likely Tudor propaganda. Richard's treatment afterwards was one that's always given by the victor to the loser, stripped of all his clothes and shamefully paraded, he was then written as the worst monarch that ever lived.

And while I do agree there needs to be a better assessment of Richard, doing the same to Margaret and Richard is just as dumb. She was born in 1443 and a year after, John Beaufort, her father and Duke of Somerset died. Many said at the time that it was because of suicide because of his terrible leadership in France. Truth or not, Margaret was now a wealthy heiress and her wardship was widely sought after. William de la Pole, the crown's favorite tried to marry her to his son, but after he was murdered, at only nine years old Margaret was brought to court to swear that she never intended to marry his son. Later she rewrote history saying that it was because of a godly vision that told her that it was her destiny to marry Edmund Tudor and establish a great house, that she denied it. Margaret married at only 12 and Edmund Tudor, anxious to get his hands on her wealth, didn't bother to wait. He impregnated her less than a year after and she gave birth in January 1457 when she was months away from being 14, to her only offspring. The birth damaged her, she never had any children with her other spouses. She had a happy marriage with her next spouse, Henry Stafford and they celebrated their anniversary in big style every year and even housed Edward IV in their hunting lodged in one occasion. This doesn't sound like the power hungry, vindictive Margaret of TV. And that's because she wasn't! She was very learned and founded and refounded many colleges, chief among them: Christ's College which had previously been God's House and St. John's in Cambridge. Aware that only the privileged few could attend these institutions she voiced her concerns in 1479, and her attempts bore fruit when Wimborne College was established posthumously in 1509, which was later renamed Queen Elizabeth's school. She also established the Lady Margaret Beaufort Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge in 1502 and the first women's college in Oxford was named after her.

In spite of her joy of seeing her son crowned, she could not help herself. Fisher and many contemporaries described how she cried -a clear sign of a woman that doesn't care about power- and when asked why, she responded because she had lived through so many kings and princes who had been murdered and killed in battle. Who knew if her son was next or if his reign would last. She cried the same tears of grief on her grandson's joint coronation with Katherine, fearing that his reign would face the same troubles.

Margaret passed away days after in 1509, after a long life of hardship and triumph.

[addictofsupernatural]

Emotions (pt. 10)

Billy Hargrove x reader

Summary: Billy reevaluates his relationship, and the both of them spiral.

Word Count: 2009

Chapter 1 • Chp. Masterlist • Chapter 11

"I can explain!"

"What the fuck was that?!" Billy yelled, freaked out.

"Billy, please calm down." You felt like you almost couldn't breathe. It felt like panic was taking over you and squeezing your heart. You really wanted to cry. What was this feeling? "Please."

He took some deep breathes and pointed at Neil. "How the fuck did you do that?"

"Please don't freak out–"

"Friends don't lie!" He shouted. You could feel your nose beginning to burn and the stinging in your eyes were starting up. "Tell me the truth!"

"Okay. Okay, um, I have powers. Like, like an ability to do something that, um, regular people can't do."

"You telling me that you're some kind of mutant?" He looked at you with an expression that he's never given you.

"No. I'm not a mutant. I was just born like this. My mother had experiments done on her and she died in labor. I, I just came out with my ability."

"And what the fuck is that ability?"

You've never felt this bad about yourself, you don't think. The way he was speaking to you, looking at you. The love of your life was looking at you like a monster. It was almost too much to handle. "Um, I can alter emotions." You squeaked.

"Emotions?" You nodded, and Billy paced around the room and ran his fingers through his hair. What if you were controlling his feelings? You could knock someone out from sleepiness, so you'd be able to do it, right? Was your whole relationship a lie? "Have you ever used that shit on me?"

"Well, once but it was an acci–"

"Get out."

"Billy I–"

"Get out!" You said nothing as you looked at his angry eyes, and walked out. You walked down the street, sobbing uncontrollably. As you walked towards the woods, it began to pour. You walked over to a telephone pole, and tried to think. Hopper's at work. Who else would you call?

It was about a few minutes until Joyce came rushing with her car. You got from the ground where you were sitting, and got into the car. "Jesus y/n you're soaking. Are you okay?"

As you told her everything she took you home and had you take a shower. She got you comfortably seated on your bed and let you listen to the radio that she got you for your birthday. She was the one who decided when your birthday should be, after all. You felt like a burden right now, and you didn't have to tell her anything for her to say that it wasn't any trouble when it came to you.

El saw this, and called Mike, who called everybody else. Jonathan drove everyone there, and soon they piled up in your room to check up on you. Everyone each got their turn to say something, whether it was helpful or not. "I knew he was a fucking piece of shit from the start." Dustin stated as they all looked at you on your bed.

"Yeah, he was a jerk anyways." Lucas said.

"Like, he just speaks out his ass most of the time." Max commented.

"Don't worry five," Mike said. "We got your back."

Jonathan ushered everybody out to talk to you. He sat on your bed while you still laid there in silence. "I called Steve. Maybe he could cheer you up." You nodded. "How're you feeling?"

"Like a monster." You sat up and rubbed your eyes, which were still puffy and red. "I just wanna be normal."

"You are normal." Jonathan said. "You just have something in you that others don't, but you only use it for good. That just makes you a good person."

"I don't want something extra. It doesn't matter how I use it. I'm either a monster or a freak."

"No, you're just y/n. The one who's always happy and nice to jerks. When I look at you, all I see is my friend." You gently smiled at him, and he smiled back.

"I'm here!" Steve said, storming into your room. "Oh my God, that asshat really did it this time." He rushed over to you, grabbing your arms. "You're not hurt, are you? Your face..." He trailed off, trying to get you to laugh at how puffy your face was.

"Yeah, well you look like you just ran a marathon and I'm not even gonna start about your hair, so I wouldn't be talking." The three of you chuckled. "Thanks for being here guys."

"Your welcome!" Dustin called out from the other room.

"Hey, dickhead, way to ruin the mood!" Steve called out.

Just then Hopper walked into the house, and looked around. "Does anyone wanna tell me why my home is a day care center right now?"

Joyce grabbed her keys with Max trailing behind. "Talk to Jonathan. I'm going to take Max to get her stuff. She's sleeping over with everybody else."

"Every– what is happening?!"

As Jonathan and Steve explained everything that happened, Joyce and Max left. When they stormed inside the house, they saw that Billy had just put Neil on the couch. He looked at Joyce. "Who are you?"

"Who am I? I'm a friend of Hopper, and a friend of y/n buster." Joyce crossed her arms and pointed at him. "C'mon Max, get your stuff."

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Billy took a step towards Max.

"I'm sleeping over at y/n's to make sure she's okay."

"Max, you don't–"

"I know about it all dipfuck!" Max yelled. "About her powers and everything!"

"Yeah!– woah, language." Joyce said.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just cause he, like, really deserves it."

"Well yeah he does deserve it and he is one, but just, y'know."

"Yeah. Totally get it. I'll watch my language next time."

"Max!" Billy yelled, stopping the bickering between the other two. "You knew?!"

"Yeah, I knew. What does that matter? She wouldn't use it for bad things. She's a good person Billy. She's been through enough cra– um, stuff, for her to become, like, a supervillain or something, but she chooses to be nice and better."

"She's admitted to using it on me before though."

"Well did you let her explain the situation?" Joyce asked, causing Billy to fall silent. "Sometimes she gets so full of emotion that it just radiates off of her. She's not used to being so happy, but you wouldn't know that."

"Don't you have kids? You're really okay with them hanging with someone who could toy with them if they wanted to?"

Joyce got close to his face and pushed his shoulder. "I'll have you know that her and her sister were the ones who helped save my son's life. It is not their fault they were born that way, and they just want to be like regular people."

"Her sister..." He trailed off.

El. Billy didn't think about her until now. It actually explained a lot of things. Her lack of speaking fluently. Her shyness. Why she wasn't in school. He thought that she was homeschooled because of past foster parents or something. But it wasn't a foster program. It was a lab. She couldn't even be a kid.

This caused Billy to think differently. He had a soft spot for El, and it made him think about you. You were once like that. You must have struggled to make complete sentences at some point. When he met you, you were pretty shy. You probably didn't know anything about anything in school, and yet somehow caught up and even excelled.

You had to learn everything from the start and work hard because of it, yet you were bullied from it. Unlike El, you didn't really find any die hard friends. You had that one guy, but felt like you couldn't be around his without bothering that girl. And now all Billy did was make you feel a hundred times worse.

"Shit." He muttered.

"Yeah, now you actually start thinking. We're gonna leave you here to think. We gotta go comfort y/n now." Joyce said. "At least Jonathan and Steve are there with her right now."

Steve. He was probably hugging you, maybe making you laugh right now. He could picture the two of you together watching TV as you were snuggled up against him, smiling. And you needed that right now, thanks to Billy. He wasn't the one you were going to right now in your time of need. Damnit.

"Have fun with your guilt asshole." Max flipped him off.

"Max."

"Okay okay. That was the last time, I swear."

As they came back, everybody had situated themselves to where to sleep. All the kids slept in El's room, Hopper insisted Joyce take the bed while he was on the couch, and Steve and Jonathan were on the living room floor, where they had put a bunch of blankets for cushion.

They all let you have your privacy tonight. As you got ready for bed, you grabbed the jean jacket that had been thrown on your chair only a week ago. Billy had forgot it, and when you put it on as a joke, he said that you should have it. That you looked cute in it.

You put it on. It smelled like him, and felt comforting like him. It made you think of the memories you have with him. You could almost feel him brush your hair away from the back of your neck, giving it loving kisses. You could almost smell his cigarettes, when he tried to kiss you, but you were quick enough to dodge it and kiss him on the cheek.

Would any of that have still happened if he had known from the start? Would he had still loved you? Maybe it was really just a lie?

Billy went to his bedroom and opened his bottom drawer. He took out the small teddy bear with a leather jacket on and cigarette in hand, which you called Damien. He opened his top drawer and took out the polaroid pictures of you. Some were just of you smiling, some had the both of you, and some were of you unaware that he was taking pictures. There were also a few naughty polaroids of you, but Billy suddenly felt like he shouldn't be looking at you so exposed, so he put those back.

He laid down on his bed, with the polaroid pictures of you spread out next to him, and with Damien in his arms. He snuggled his head into the bear, and silently cried.

Billy was never really a crier. He would get choked up sometimes when he was being vulnerable with you, but never full on cried. He always had you to make him feel better. You'd clean off the blood from his face, and put some Band-Aids on him. You even bought him a first aid kit for his car. He can almost feel you lean up to kiss his forehead, tracing your thumb over his jaw. He could remember the gentle hugs you gave, so gentle it was almost as if you were afraid to hurt him.

You never messed with his head. If you had then those crappy feelings about himself and his dad would go away, but they never fully did. Even around you, he had some anxiety that he'd mess things up. If you really were controlling him, wouldn't he just have been happy all the time?

It wasn't a lie. You weren't lying.

As you were in your bed and recalled your fond memories with Billy, you decided that this was your fault. You shouldn't have dated in the first place. All you did was drag a good person into your life and issues, and that was selfish of you. Billy would be your one and only love, but you needed to give that up.

As Billy was in his bed and recalled his fond memories with you, he decided that this was his fault. He should have listened more instead of getting angry. All you did was try to be happy with him like a normal couple, and he couldn't see past your flaws. That was selfish of him. You would be his one and only love, and he's not giving that up.

---

Tag List:

@roxytheimmortal @shane-isa-shame @actuallyazriel @tanovic54321 @chipster-21 @jula-bear @ellie2468 @sassysmiles @frozenhuntress67 @fansanctuary @homewrites @tearsforhan @waymorecake4me @sarai-ibn-la-ahad @dustyblueboo @grave-details @marvellover48 @i-want-to-shoot-myself @jjlizz

[ghostvib-blog]

Present Day

Crack, crack, goes the sound of the gun as I reloaded it and point it to the head of my sister and then to my supposed "husband", I tied them against a pole in my room and watch as they scream and beg for mercy, am trembling cause I don't know what to do at this point..... I hear a voice followed by a faint pant calling out Sis, Sis please, I laugh wondering how she could muster the courage to call me sis after taking everything away from me !!!!!!! 



Past

I always wanted a little sister, someone, to play with and care for since the other kids seemed not to have my time. One faithful day that wish came true, Mom walked to the dining, where I was with Dad sitting on his laps and said, "My love you are going to have another woman in your life", she knew it was a girl since she had already done the ultrasound, immediately my Dad heard that he put me down and screamed Yessss, thank you, and held my mummy's tummy as if the baby could hear his voice.

Time flew by quickly, and my little sister was born; she looked very gorgeous and innocent, like an angel freshly plucked from heaven. My parents seemed to give her more attention as days went by, at a point, I kinda got used to it, but I could have never foreseen what it all meant for me. On her 19th birthday we threw a big party and invited many of her friends over and some of my friends including my boyfriend, yeah I know what just went through your mind "boyfriend" !!! mind you, I also grew too, while my little sis turned 19 I was already 21, a full-grown woman with a degree and all that. My family was already familiar with him, and the whole tall, dark handsomeness that he was. He and my little sister Rose seemed to be close, I didn't just know how close tho !!! Rose had gone to wash up and my boyfriend was nowhere to be found, I went over to her bedroom and heard sounds 'ah, ah, ah', it sounded like a moan like someone was having sex, at least I knew that with the little I see in movies anytime I hanged out with my friends, but I never actually tried it even tho my boyfriend complained, I chose to save that for marriage. But wait !!!! Someone was having sex right in my sister's room before I could open the door completely my Mom called and asked me to come over to the kitchen when my boyfriend came and said he had to leave, that he was tired, I could see it in his eyes and followed him till he left in his car.

The Birthday party was finally over and was a big success my sis was already on her bed sleeping. I laughed if only she knew what transpired on that bed.



Days went by quickly, it was summer and since my sis was home I decided to take her shopping alongside my friends, my boyfriend and his guys joined us on our shopping spree, my sister went to the dresser to change, minutes passed, it seemed like she was surely taking her time, which was just like her. So I went to check up on her and heard sounds, it was Rose's voice, I quickly ran to her aid but what I saw left me paralyzed down to my feet, I couldn't even breathe it was like a little sharp needle was slowly making its way into my skin, it was my boyfriend Tommy and Rose, her clothes were torn and his pants were down, when she saw me she ran to me and gave me a tight hold, and I got the strength to speak and asked "what, what is going on here" and she quickly explained that my boyfriend Tommy was raping her, she shouted and told him to stop but he refused. Tommy couldn't look me in the face, tears rained down my eyes as I looked at him and watched him pick up his pants and walk out of the dresser, I held my sister and told her I was sorry, that it was all my fault for not truly knowing the man I was dating, that scene left me traumatized I felt so broken if only I had given him what he wanted it was just "sex" maybe, just maybe he wouldn't have gone after my little sister. Months went by and I finally got the mind to ask Tommy why??? why not another girl??? my own sister!! All he could tell me was, he was sorry SNF I should keep an eye on my younger sis. That statement troubled my mind but soon left.



Years passed and burdens fell on my shoulders as our parents met their untimely demise on a vacation trip to Los Angeles. I got a job, and a well-paid one to cater for my sister Rose's needs and train her while she was in school, she's in her finals and the demands keep on growing according to her she needed close to 300k to settle her lecturers for her project which I gave her. I grew feelings for my boss Dan and we feel in love and eventually got married, he was against the idea of Rose staying with us saying she is a mature woman and should be independent but I changed his mind. Dan was a man of many crazy fantasies, very crazy ones so much he put a stripper pole in our room so he could watch me dance, before watching me ride him which I did. I was happy to see Rose and Dan getting along I could finally leave them and focus on my project a house, I built for her, it cost a lot and was fully furnished with two cars a Mercedes 430 and a Mustang.

Oh I ended up coming home late and it was raining, the door was open, Rose must have left it open I thought to hope that she cooked, I was completely drenched so I decided not to wake my baby up and went to my private room and changed, everywhere was so quiet, I went to Rose's room to SDK why she didn't cook but wait !!! She wasn't there, maybe she stayed out with a friend I said yo myself and went upstairs carefully so I could sneak up on my bunny, being my boss he badly turns up at work.

Music ???? I can hear music ?? Smooth jazz, playing that's strange at this time of the night, what I saw next broke my mentality and heart into pieces, it was my sister Rose on my lingerie and twirling on the pole in my room and there my husband was naked and watching her, I fell to my knees crying and crying and watched as she mounted him, kissed him, rides him and made love to my husband till they both slept off. I recalled what Tommy said all those years back, the scene in her room on her birthday and everything I had done for her, the tears turned to blood, disgust, and hate. I went out that night having worn back my wet clothes and slept at a nearby friend's house and came home with a shopping bag and the keys to the house I had built for Rose alongside the keys to her cars.



My husband was up and asked where I was last night, I told him I got caught in the rain and had to stay in a friend's place and he took my clothes and kept them for me, Rose was still asleep so I went to the kitchen to cook and added a little "spike" to the food, by the time the food was done she was up and ran to hug me and said Dian you are back !!! I watched as they ate to their fullest before asking why I wasn't eating before the answer could come they were already asleep.....

......................................................................

Back to Present Day

So here I am with a revolver pointed at my little Sister's head and to my Husband's head asking you the readers what should I do ?????

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer

Hi Everyone, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where We Are Continuing Duke's Yultide Reviews...

Well, With Christmas Movies Behind Us For The Year, It's Time To Move Into Christmas Specials And What Better Way To Start Then To Look At The Original Christmas Special, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer...

Now, Unlike Some Of The Movies I Went Over In November, I Feel That I Really Don't Have To Go Over The Plot Of This Special As Everyone Knows It By Now And Anyone Who Doesn't Probably Lives Under A Rock...

So, Without Further Ado, This Is Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer...

The Special Starts With Newspaper Pages And Snowflakes Before We're Introduced To Our Narrator, Sam The Snowman, Played By Burl Ives...

Who Talks With Us About Christmas Town...

No, It's Not That Christmas Town...

But The Christmas Town That Sam Is Talking About Is At The North Pole Where The #1 Citizens Are The Clauses Who Live On The First Castle On The Left, Matter Of Fact The Only Castle On The Left..,

Cutting To Inside The Castle We See Mrs Claus Telling Santa To Eat Up As The Kids Expect A Fat Santa For Christmas Eve....

Some People Might See This As Skinny Shaming But Me I See This As Sending A Good Message Saying That Says After The Holidays, Santa Loses Weight In An Effort To Not Get Diabetes...

Telling Us About How Much He Loves Christmas, Sam Tells Us About The Year Of The Big Snowstorm And How They Couldn't Have Done It Without Rudolph, Which Leads Sam To Tell Us Our Story But Not Before Giving Us An Intro And A Title Card...

Starting A Few Years Before The Big Snowstorm, In Spring No Less, We See The Donners Give Birth To A Little Buck Named Rudolph Who Is Born With A Red Glowing Nose...

However, In The Movie Rudolph And Frosty's Christmas In July, It Was Revealed That Rudolph Wasn't Born With The Nose But Was Given It By The Spirit Of The North Pole Known As Lady Boreal In An Effort To Protect Santa From The Evil Wizard Winterbolt Who Had Just Woken Up When Lady Boreal's Powers Started To Wane And Weaken After Being In Her Human Form For Too Long...

But Getting Back To Our Story, Santa Arrives To Meet Rudolph Only To Discover His Powers For Himself...

Coming Up With An Idea To Hide Rudolph's Nose, Donner Teaches Rudolph How To Be A Reindeer, While Teaching His Son To Beware Of The Abominable Snowmonster Of The North Who's Mean, Nasty And Doesn't Like Christmas..

But Aside From The Abominable, We Cut To Santa's Workshop Where We Meet Hermey, Who's An Elf Who Wants To Be A Dentist Which Catches The Ire Of The Foreman...

(Start At 1:42, End At 1:56)

Growing Up Over The Years, Rudolph Has Gotten Tired Of Hiding His Nose As The Mud His Parents Place On It Isn't Very Comfortable, But Donner Believes That Self Respect Is More Important Than Comfort...

I Would Play The Other Part Of The Song But I Couldn't Find It On YouTube, Sorry...

With Christmas Coming And Going As Always, Soon It Is April Which Is When All The Fawns Come Out To Be Inspected By Santa And When The Elf Choir Practices In Front Of Santa...

Whoa!, Whoa!, Whoa!, What Happened To The Elf Foreman?

His Voice Just Went From Gruff To Squeaky In 10 Seconds, Why?, Was The Actor Unavailable? Did They Have Another Actor Originally Do The Voice? Somebody Give Me Answers!

(Start At 0:14, End At 1:49)

With Santa Leaving, The Foreman (Whose Voice Is Gruff Again) Tells Them That The Performance Was Terrible As The Tenor Section Was Weak...

I Don't Know, Foreman Defiantly Sounded Good To Me...

But One Of The Elves Tell The Foreman That Hermey Didn't Show Up...

Working On Dolls Teeth, The Foreman Marches In To Tell Hermey That Despite Trying To Find A Way To Fit In He'll Never Fit In And To Come To Elf Practice Before Slamming The Door Shut...

Believing The Foreman To Be Right, Hermey Runs Away...

Back At The Reindeer Fields, Rudolph Makes A Friend Named Fireball, Who Introduces Rudolph To A Doe Named Clarice...

Walking Over To Her As The Coach Comet, Won't Get To Rudolph And Fireball For A While, Rudolph Talks With Clarice...

(Imitating Hannibal Lecter) Hello, Clarice...

Asking Her To Walk Home With Him, Clarice Tells Rudolph Yes, As She Tells Him That She Thinks That He's Cute...

Leaping Into The Sky 2 Times, Rudolph Butts Heads With Fireball Which Causes Rudolph's Nose To Fall Off...

With His Secret Revealed, The Reindeer Not Only Make Fun Of Rudolph But Santa Gets Mad At Donner As Comet Tells Everyone To Not Let Rudolph Join In Any Reindeer Games...

Followed By Clarice As Rudolph Promised To Take Her Home, She Doesn't Care What Everyone Else Thinks And Says That His Nose Is Better Than That False One He Was Wearing...

(Start At 0:19, End At 2:14)

But When Clarice's Father, ? Enters To Tell Rudolph To Stay Away From Her, Rudolph Finds Himself All Alone Again, That Is Until He Runs Into Hermey Who Tells Rudolph That He Doesn't Need Anyone Because He's Independent Which Leads Rudolph To Declare The Same...

Okay, I Realize Rudolph Is Not A Girl But Since He's Voiced By One I'm Playing This...

Originally This Wasn't The Song For This Scene, Originally It Was This...

Walking For A While, Rudolph And Hermey Hear The Roar Of The Abominable Snowmonster Which Causes Hermey To Have Rudolph Douse His Nose For Now...

Continually Walking Till Morning,They End Up Meeting Yukon Cornelius, Who Is Searching These Areas For Silver And Gold Which Leads Us To Our Next Song...

(Start At 0:08)

With The Abominable Catching Up With Our 3 Friends, Yukon Creates An Iceberg So They Can Get Away From The Abominable But With No Land In Sight Our Friends Have No Idea Where They're Headed...

Eventually Hitting Land, Yukon, Hermey And Rudolph Find Themselves On An Island With Flying Lions And Talking Jack In The Boxes...

Correction Charlie In The Boxes...

(Start At 0:40)

With Rudolph Asking If They Can Stay On The Island With Them, Charlie Takes Them To King Moonracer (Who Is The Flying Lion In Question) Who Unfortunately Tells Them No But Asks Them That Once They Return To Christmas Town To Tell Santa About Their Island Which Rudolph Promises He Will...

For This, King Moonracer Allows Them To Spend The Night...

Oh, How Generous...

With His Friends Deciding To Return To Christmas Town, Rudolph Decides To Strike Out On His Own To Save His Friends From The Abominable Snowmonster...

But As The Years Pass, Rudolph Grows Older And Realizes That You Can't Run Away From Your Troubles Which Leads Him To Decide To Head Home...

But In Returning Home, He Discovers An Empty Cave Which Leads Santa To Point Out That Them And Clarice Have Been Gone For Months Out Looking For Him...

But While Going Out To Find His Parents The Storm Of The Century Hits...

But Again, In Rudolph And Frosty's Christmas In July, It Was Revealed That The Storm Was Created By Winterbolt In An Attempt To Get Rid Of Santa Forever As There Could Only Be One King Of The North....

Searching For His Parents, Rudolph Realized That They Could Only Be One Place, The Cave Of The Abominable Snowmonster...

Oops, Wrong Cave And Wrong Abominable Snowman...

Anyway, Entering The Cave, Rudolph Attacks The Snowmonster Only To Get Whapped By A Piece Of The Cave...

Well, Not Exactly As Hermey And Yukon Cornelius Arrive To Rescue Their Friend And His Family With Hermey Distracting The Abominable While Yukon Drops A Big Rock On Him...

Getting Rudolph And His Family Out, They Find Themselves Confronted By The Bumble Again Only To Discover That Hermey Took Out All Of His Teeth...

Pushing The Bumble Back With His Dogs, Yukon Goes Over The Edge Of A Cliff Along With His Dogs And The Bumble...

And This Is Supposed To Be A Kids Special!

With Everyone Going Back To Christmas Town, Santa Apologizes To Rudolph And Tells Him That He'll Find Homes For All Of The Misfit Toys On The Island Of Misfit Toys While The Foreman Apologizes To Hermey Telling Him That He Can Open Up A Office Next Week After Christmas...

Hearing A Knock On The Door, We Discover That Yukon Survived...

And So Did The Bumble Who Only Did What He Did Because He Wanted A Job...

Wow, I Didn't Know Unemployment Was A Problem At The North Pole...

Asking How They Survived, Yukon Kind Of Gives A Dumb Yet Funny Answer...

While Everyone Gets Ready For Christmas, Santa Gets News From His Eye In The Sky Weather Reporter, Who Tells Him That The Storm Won't Let Up And Christmas Will Have To Be Cancelled, But As Rudolph's Light Shines Santa Decides That Rudolph Is Their Answer...

With Rudolph On-Board For Helping Santa, We Get Our Next Song...

(Start At 0:11)

With Santa Fattened Up And The Sleigh Filled They Take Off With An Up Up And Away...

Okay, Is Santa Superman?

Meanwhile On The Island Of Misfit Toys, Charlie, The Spotted Elephant And The Doll Have All But Given Up This Year But When They See Rudolph's Nose, Everyone Gathers Up So They Can Board The Sleigh...

(End At 1:46)

Fun Fact: When I Was A Kid, I Had A Hard Time With VHS Remotes And Accidentally Taped Over A Little Bit Of The Ending With The End Credits Of A Care Bears Nutcracker And My Mom Still Bugs Me About It To This Day...

But That's Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer And It's A Good Special...

Sure, It Has A Few Things That Show What Time It Came From But It's Still A Good Christmas Special, I Love The Characters, I Love The Story, The Sets Are Well Made And I Just Say See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[weird-fan-tomboy]

~WINGS~

(Based on a dream @vinniemalaproper had the other night)

"...stupid wings."

That's the only word that came out of Puggsy's mouth as he trudged through the woods, going down his secret path that led to the rocky shores of the beach. It had been a helluva day at school today; the entire class practically ganged up on him... and you know your day is bad when even the nerds and jocks are teaming up to harass you.

All because of his wings.

Many people in Lakeshore Heights had wings; in fact the city was 90% winged-population! Eagle wings, bat wings, dragon wings... everyone was born with a set that could make them soar!

But him?

He was born with butterfly wings.

It made no sense to him. His father sported a fantastic pair of green dragon wings, his mother gifted with gold eagle wings... even his little sister had a pair of ebony bat-wings!

Yet out of all the people in the city, hell even the WORLD, he was the only guy born with a pair of bright yellow-and-black butterfly wings.

Everywhere he went in town, he would receive weird looks from others. He remembered how his parents had him wear a coat over them when he was a kid (as wings were often sprouted by age five), until they got too big to conceal.

And school was merciless. In elementary, it was mainly basic pranks and being shunned on the playground; in middle school, the name-calling, getting stuck in lockers, and swirlies took place.

By high school...

He rubbed his side, still feeling the bruises. He checked his wings-- they had been stomped on, but no tears or holes to be seen (as it was considered battery to damage wings in such a way). He still had scars, which he did his best to keep hidden; he was sick of hearing his mother cry at night about it. Dad had issued warnings, even talked about sending him somewhere safer. His sister wanted to pick fights with anyone who messed with her big bro, despite she was only 5.

Deep in his mind, he felt nothing would stop the bullying. 'Why don't they just rip my wings off and get it over with?!' He wondered. Doing so would kill him, sure... but death sounded better than living like this.

Reaching the beach, he sat on a rock. It was a cloudy day on the coast, only a few gulls flying overhead. He had the mind to fly away... just fly off until his wings were too tired... get as far away from others as he could... someplace where he could be alone for good...

Shit, he's crying. He hated to cry; quickly he wiped his eyes, forcing the rest of the tears to keep from falling...

"I like your wings."

"GAH!" Puggsy jumped, looking over. Someone else was here?!

The stranger gasped and ducked behind a rock, meekly peeking out. "Ooh, ooh! Sorry! I didn't mean to scare ya," he stammered. He was a skinny-looking guy with light brown hair, sporting a red cap.

"I wasn't scared! You just... caught me off guard, that's all." Puggsy retorted, facing away from him; he spread his wings as a way to hide himself, giving the hint that he wasn't in the mood to socialize.

...the hint went over the stranger's head.

"Yellow swallowtail wings... wow, they look fantastic!" He was going on, walking over. "I bet if the sun was out, the color would reflect its light-- maybe make them glow! Has that ever happened? Huh? Huh?"

Puggsy clenched his fists. "Shut up! Dammit, I've had enough people make fun of my wings today, so beat it!"

There was a pause. The stranger shifted. "I-I'm not making fun of them... I just think they're really cool. I've never seen wings like yours before,"

"Tch. That's a load of..." he turned to chew out the stranger, but paused.

...

No wonder.

Heh, that makes sense... only someone without wings would find his fascinating.

The stranger rubbed his arm. "Sorry I upset you... I-I get carried away... I'll just go." He said, walking off.

Puggsy sighed. "Come back..." he called, waving the other teen over. "It ain't your fault. I'm... just not used to complimentaries,"

The stranger stood by him. "Neither am I. ...I'm the only one in town without wings and... well, a bunch of guys at school pick on me for it. I only have 2 friends,"

"Tch. At least you have friends... What's your name, anyway?"

"You can call me Fangs. Yours?"

" Puggsy... What school do you go to?"

"Blackwood High, across town."

Puggsy blinked. Blackwood district was at least 20 miles from his town! "And you WALKED all the way here?"

"No... I have a car. Kinda easy to drive since, y'know, everyone flies." He looked at his wings. "...why do people make fun of your wings? Are they jealous?"

Puggsy blushed. "No. ...I'm the only guy in town with butterfly wings. I'm a freak..."

"Ha. At least you HAVE wings..." Fangs shifted, looking at them as if he discovered a hidden treasure. "Can I... um..."

"What?"

"Can I... feel them?"

Puggsy gave a jolt. "Excusify me?!"

"Ah! Sorry! Is that offensive?! I-I-I don't know enough about wing culture, so...! I'm sorry if I came off as creepy!"

Puggsy unleashed a breath. This guy was a real idiot... "It's fine... y-you can feel them, but be careful not to tear them or anything. Also... they're pretty sore, so don't overdo it."

"Okay, Pugs, okay..." Fangs hesitantly reached out; using the tips of his fingers, he carefully glided over the rim of the wings.

Puggsy bit his lip and stifled his mouth. It tickled! A chortle escaped his lips.

Fangs paused, looking over his shoulder. "Ticklish?"

"Allergies!" Puggsy lied.

Fangs chuckled. "Sure. Allergies." He walked around, sitting on a rock next to him. "Hey, you wanna hang out? My friends and I are meeting up at the pier to go fishing."

Puggsy crossed his arms. "I don't know... I'm not exactly the 'hanging out' type."

After all, these friends could mock him too... or someone could come along and harass them both...

A hand rested on his shoulder. "It's okay... neither was I. But if you change your mind, we'll be down the beach at 7. ...I just came early to go fishing first." He stood up. "See you around, Pugs."

With that he began to walk off.

Puggsy sat there a moment, looking back at him. On the one hand, he was skeptical; anything could go wrong...

On the other hand... no one ever invited him anywhere before.

...

Ah, what the heck.

"Hey, Fangs!" He called, getting the wingless teen's attention. "...You got an extra fishing pole?"

END.

[7r0773r]

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard

Children ten years old wake up and find themselves here, discover themselves to have been here all along; is this sad? They wake like sleepwalkers, in full stride; they wake like people brought back from cardiac arrest or from drowning: in medias res, surrounded by familiar people and objects, equipped with a hundred skills. They know the neighborhood, they can read and write English, they are old hands at the commonplace mysteries, and yet they feel themselves to have just stepped off the boat, just converged with their bodies, just flown down from a trance, to lodge in an eerily familiar life already well under way.

I woke in bits, like all children, piecemeal over the years. I discovered myself and the world, and forgot them, and discovered them again. I woke at intervals until, by that September when Father went down the river, the intervals of waking tipped the scales, and I was more often awake than not. I noticed this process of waking, and predicted with terrifying logic that one of these years not far away I would be awake continuously and never slip back, and never be free of myself again. (p. 11)

***

What can we make of the inexpressible joy of children? It is a kind of gratitude, I think—the gratitude of the ten-year-old who wakes to her own energy and the brisk challenge of the world. You thought you knew the place and all its routines, but you see you hadn't known. Whole stacks at the library held books devoted to things you knew nothing about. The boundary of knowledge receded, as you poked about in books, like Lake Erie's rim as you climbed its cliffs. And each area of knowledge disclosed another, and another. Knowledge wasn't a body, or a tree, but instead air, or space, or being—whatever pervaded, whatever never ended and fitted into the smallest cracks and the widest space between stars.

Any way you cut it, colors and shadows flickered from multiple surfaces. Just enough work had already been done on everything—moths, say, or meteorites—to get you started and interested, but not so much there was nothing left to do. Often I wondered: was it being born just now, in this century, in this country? And I thought: no, any time could have been like this, if you had the time and weren't sick; you could, especially if you were a boy, learn and do. There was joy in concentration, and the world afforded an inexhaustible wealth of projects to concentrate on. There was joy in effort, and the world resisted effort to just the right degree, and yielded to it at last. People cut Mount Rushmore into faces; they chipped here and there for years. People slowed the spread of yellow fever; they sprayed the Isthmus of Panama puddle by puddle. Effort alone I loved. Some days I would have been happy to push a pole around a threshing floor like an ox, for the pleasure of moving the heavy stone and watching my knees rise in turn. (pp. 106-07)

***

What does it feel like to be alive?

Living, you stand under a waterfall. You leave the sleeping shore deliberately; you shed your dusty clothes, pick your barefoot way over the high, slippery rocks, hold your breath, choose your footing, and step into the waterfall. The hard water pelts your skull, bangs in bits on your shoulders and arms. The strong water dashes down beside you and you feel it along your calves and thighs rising roughly back up, up to the roiling surface, full of bubbles that slide up your skin or break on you at full speed. Can you breathe here? Here where the force is greatest and only the strength of your neck holds the river out of your face? Yes, you can breathe even here. You could learn to live like this. And you can, if you concentrate, even look out at the peaceful far bank where maples grow straight and their leaves lean down. For a joke you try to raise your arms. What a racket in your ears, what a scattershot pummeling!

It is time pounding at you, time. Knowing you are alive is watching on every side your generation's short time falling away as fast as rivers drop through air, and feeling it hit.

Who turned on the lights? You did, by waking up: you flipped the light switch, started up the wind machine, kicked on the flywheel that spins the years. Can you catch hold of a treetop, or will you fly off the diving planet as she rolls? Can you ride out the big blow on a coconut palm's trunk until you fall asleep again, and the winds let up? You fall asleep again, and you slide in a dream to the palm tree's base; the winds die off, the lights dim, the years slip away as you idle there till you die in your sleep, till death sets you cruising down the Tamiami Trail.

Knowing you are alive is feeling the planet buck under you, rear, kick, and try to throw you; you hang on to the ring. It is riding the planet like a log downstream, whooping. Or, conversely, you step aside from the dreaming fast loud routine and feel time as a stillness about you, and hear the silent air asking in so thin a voice, Have you noticed yet that you will die? Do you remember, remember, remember? Then you feel your life as a weekend, a weekend you cannot extend, a weekend in the country.

O Augenblick verweile. (pp. 150-51)

***

I knew what I was doing at Paw Paw: I was beginning the lifelong task of tuning my own gauges. I was there to brace myself for leaving. I was having my childhood. But I was haunting it, as well, practically reading it, and preventing it. How much noticing could I permit myself without driving myself round the bend? Too much noticing and I was too self-conscious to live; I trapped and paralyzed myself, and dragged my friends down with me, so we couldn't meet each other's eyes, my own loud awareness damning us both. Too little noticing, though—I would risk much to avoid this—and I would miss the whole show. I would wake on my deathbed and say, What was that? (p. 155)